


Colonel Jackson

by alltimelovee



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-16
Updated: 2017-06-20
Packaged: 2018-08-09 01:46:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 28,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7782115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alltimelovee/pseuds/alltimelovee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lieutenant Colonel Allison Jackson has served in the United States Air Force since she turned 18, going through many deployments and battles. After being asked to join the Stargate program, she is faced with protecting the entire planet, not just her country.</p><p> Warnings: violence, minor swearing</p><p>*I only own Allison Jackson and Kevin Barnes, they are characters that I created, everything and everyone else comes from the Stargate TV show.*</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introduction

Introduction:  
Allison “Ali” Jackson was born on July 19th, 1970 in New York. When she was two years old, her parents were killed in an accident at the Manhattan Museum of Art while her eight year old brother, Daniel, watched. Their grandfather refused to take the orphaned siblings in and they were both put into the custody of foster parents.  
  
Daniel and Allison were always very close, seeing as they were pretty much all that each other had. Daniel grew up and went off to school and started his career as an archaeologist while Allison was still in school for 5 years after Daniel left. When Ali finally graduated from high school, she decided to go into the United States Air Force. She attended the Air Force Academy where she met and befriended Cameron Mitchell. They were the same rank and only a month apart in age and they trained together which made them very close. Allison liked Cameron but never told him because she was afraid he didn’t feel the same way.  
  
Allison and Cameron were put into different units and deployed to different places but they tried to keep in touch as much as possible. Allison started out doing test flights and training other officers before the war in Iraq began and she was sent there. In Iraq, Ali met Hank Landry who was a Colonel at the time. Colonel Landry and Allison only spent a short time together before Allison’s tour ended and she returned to the states, but over the months that she spent there they grew close and Colonel Landry became almost a father figure for Allison.  
  
Allison served more tours and right after she was promoted to Major, she was approached by some people involved with the Stargate program which she knew a little about because of her brother. She was asked to be an F-302 pilot along with her long time co pilot Captain Kevin Barnes. They accepted the offer and were taken to the base to be trained to fly the F-302. When they arrived at the base, Allison was surprised to see her old friend Cameron Mitchell. Ali and Cam became close again as they learned to fly the F-302’s.  
  
In 2004 the F-302 pilots were called to action to protect SG-1 from Anubis’ attack during their mission in Antarctica. Cameron was severely injured but Ali and the rest of the pilots took down many enemy ships during the battle. After the Battle of Antarctica, Allison was promoted from Major to Lieutenant Colonel for her great work in the battle. She visited Cameron at the hospital as much as possible after he had been injured. A little bit over a year after the battle, General Jack O’Neill offered Allison a position at Stargate Command and command of her own team which she gladly accepted. 

And now Colonel Allison Jackson must face the many battles that the galaxy holds.


	2. New

Chapter 2:  
After going through lots of paperwork and talking to tons of people, Allison was finally allowed to go see the gate. She stands looking up at it with her friend and co-pilot, Major Kevin Barnes, by her side. The two were absolutely in awe of this wonderful thing that stood in front of them. After a few minutes of just looking at the gate, Ali is interrupted by a familiar voice behind her.  
  
“Pretty amazing, isn’t it?”, says Daniel Jackson as he enters the gate room and sees his sister gazing upon the Stargate. Ali immediately turns around and runs to hug her older brother. They hadn’t seen each other in a few months and they share a long hug.  
When they break away Daniel is introduced to Kevin and then offers to take them on a tour, Kevin politely declines the offer and goes to see the General. Daniel then leads his sister around the base as they talk.  
  
“I’m really happy that you’re here Al, I think you’re gonna love it here,” Daniel says as he smiles down at his sister.  
  
“I think you’re right Danny,” she replies, using the nickname she gave him when she was young and couldn’t say “Daniel” properly. He always hated the nickname and rolls his eyes at it. Ali laughs at his annoyance and he gives her a light shove. They continue with light banter as they make their way to Samantha Carter’s lab so Daniel can introduce his sister to his friend Sam.  
  
When they enter the lab they find Sam and Teal’c looking at a computer screen and discussing something. They both look up as the siblings enter the room.  
  
“Sam, Teal’c, this is my sister, Lieutenant Colonel Allison Jackson. Ali, this is Colonel Samantha Carter and Teal’c,” Daniel provides the introductions for them and Sam steps forward and offers her hand to shake Allison’s.  
  
“Please call me Sam,” she says with a smile which Allison returns.  
  
“I’m Ali,” she says as they shake hands. She then turns to the tall alien next to Sam who gives a respectful nod.  
  
“Daniel Jackson has told us much about you Colonel Jackson,” Teal’c says.  
  
“All the bad stuff right?” Ali says with a laugh. Daniel shakes his head.  
  
“No, all of that would take too long to explain,” Daniel says jokingly and Ali punches his arm lightly and laughs.  
  
The four talk for a while before Ali excuses herself so she can go talk to General Landry, an old friend. She makes her way to his office and peeks in the open doorway to see him sitting at his desk writing something so she knocks on the door. When the General looks up he immediately smiles, seeing the familiar brunette girl standing in the doorway. He stands up and Ali goes to attention.  
  
“At ease Colonel,” General Landry says as he approaches her and pulls her into a short hug. “It’s good to see you again, Jackson,” the General says as he returns to his seat behind the desk and gestures for Allison to sit in the chair in front.  
  
“Good to see you too, sir. It’s been quite a while,” Ali replies as she sits down. “How have you been, sir?”  
  
“I’ve been well, what about you? Last time I saw you, you were a Captain just finishing your first tour in Iraq,” General Landry says.  
  
“And now I’m a Colonel and I get command of my very own team that travels to different planets, I would say I’m pretty great sir,” Ali replies and the General laughs. Landry then informs Ali that she will be taking over command of the current SG-15 team as their current leader is traveling to Atlantis on the Daedalus in a month. It was only a three person team so there is room for both her and Kevin. Landry gives her the files of the other two members to look over before their first mission the next day and Ali leaves to read them in her quarters. She sits on her bed and reads the files of the Lieutenant and Airman on her team and soon she falls asleep.

  


*Next Morning*  
Ali wakes to knocking on her door, she stands and stretches before walking over to open the door. Daniel stands on the other side and she moves so he can enter the room.  
  
“Good morning, I brought you coffee,” Daniel says, handing her a cup which she gladly accepts.  
  
“Thank you, what’s up?” Ali says as she sits on the edge of her bed and takes a sip of the coffee.  
  
“Well now that you’re a part of the SGC I can tell you this,” Daniel takes a deep breath, ”I’m traveling to Atlantis on the Daedalus in about a month which means I won’t be a part of SG-1 anymore and I would like you to take my place when I leave. You and I are two of the few people that can read and understand the Ancient dialect and although you don’t know it as well as I do, you still know a lot and I think you would be a great replacement for me. You can say no because I know you have your own team and SG-1 won’t be much of a team when Teal’c, Sam, and I all leave but the new commander might need someone like you so I’m going to make sure you get recommended,”  
  
“Wow, Daniel I’m.. I don’t know what to say,” Ali says. "It kinda sucks that you're leaving for Atlantis which is in another galaxy.. I mean I just got here and I was hoping we would get a chance to work together and stuff,"  
  
"Yeah, I know. And I'm sorry about that, I was hoping we could work together too. But Atlantis is a huge opportunity for me and I really want to go, I hope you can understand that," Daniel sighs and sits down next to Ali on her bed.  
  
"It is a wonderful opportunity. If I had that option I would definitely do the same thing," Ali says. "I understand Daniel, I wish you could stay but I do support you,"  
  
"Thank you Ali, I'm glad you can understand," Daniel gives a smile which Ali returns.  
  
"So you said Sam and Teal'c are leaving too, where are they going?"  
  
"Well, Sam is going to Area 51 and Teal'c is going to Dakara to help with the new Jaffa nation,"  
  
The siblings talk a little more before Ali has to go for her first mission. Daniel waits outside Ali's room while Ali changes into her uniform and puts her brown hair into a french braid and puts her hat on. When she comes out of her quarters she finds Daniel waiting and they make small talk as they walk down the halls to get to the gate room.  
  
"This place is huge, I think I'm gonna get lost," Ali says and Daniel laughs.  
  
"Once you're here a while you'll figure it out," he says. Then they arrive at the door to the gate room and Ali sees her team already standing there. "Good luck on your first mission Ali, you're gonna do great," Daniel gives his sister a quick hug.  
  
"Thanks Danny, see ya when I get back," Ali says as she enters the gate room and takes the Zat and P90 that the Airman hands her. "Hello boys, I'm Lieutenant Colonel Allison Jackson and I am the new leader of this team," she says to the Lieutenant and Airman waiting with Major Barnes. They introduce themselves as Lieutenant Aston and Airman Dwight. After they finish their introduction, the gate begins dialing.  
  
"Chevron 7 locked," And the gate explodes towards them as it finishes dialing the address, almost making Ali jump in surprise.  
  
"SG-15, you have a go. Good luck," General Landry says from the control room. Ali smiles up at the General before turning to her team.  
  
"Let's go boys," she says as she walks up the ramp. Kevin walks up next to her as she stops right in front of the gate, staring into the blue water like substance in the middle. They look at each other and nod before stepping through the gate.  
  
The team arrives on the planet and the gate shuts off behind them. They step onto the ground of P2R-157 and look around.  
  
"Split up and check out the surrounding area, we don't know if there is any life on this planet but if there is I'm sure they'll show up soon," Ali says to her team. The Lieutenant and Airman each pick a direction and go while Major Barnes stays with Allison. "Wanna stick together for this one Barnes?" Ali asks.  
  
"Yeah kinda, this is new for both of us so.." Kevin trails off and Ali nods.  
  
"I get it, I'm kinda scared too, don't worry. Let's go this way," she says and he nods. They begin walking away from the gate and past the DHD.  
  
The gate is in a small clearing surrounded by trees. As Ali and Kevin head towards the treeline, they hear the snapping of a branch and Ali holds up a hand so Kevin will stop moving. She raises her gun and looks around, trying to determine the source of the noise.  
  
"It could have just been Dwight or Aston," Kevin whispers and Ali shakes her head. She stays still and listens very intently.  
  
"GET DOWN!" Ali suddenly yells as a Jaffa staff weapon is fired at them. The two of them drop to the ground and the weapon is fired again and then a shot comes from another direction. Soon they are being shot at from all angles. Dwight and Aston run back out into the clearing. Aston turns around and begins to fire back into the trees in the direction he came from. "Get to the gate! Dwight, dial it!" Ali yells as she and Kevin shoot into the trees surrounding them while running to the gate.  
  
"Colonel, we've got incoming gliders!" Aston yells and Ali looks up to see two Goa'uld death gliders flying towards them, firing their weapons at the team. Ali raises her gun and begins to fire at the gliders, Kevin and Aston continue to shoot at the trees.  
  
Just as the gate is finally dialed, the Jaffa that were shooting at them from the trees begin to emerge into the clearing. As they continue their fire fight with the Jaffa, Dwight enters his IDC so they can go through.  
  
"IDC entered, we can go now Colonel," Dwight says as he fires some shots at the Jaffa.  
  
"Go, I'll be right behind you," she says, continuing to fire. The three men hesitate to leave the Colonel behind. "That's an order! Go!" she says and they go to the gate as Ali continues to shoot at the Jaffa. Once the other three are through the gate she begins to back up towards the gate and when she gets to it she fires a few more shots and goes through.  
  
Just as she enters the wormhole, one of the Jaffa shoots a staff blast right at her and it hits her in the back. When she comes out of the gate into the SGC she falls to the ground and yells out in pain.  
  
"Shut it down!" she hears someone yell as she lays on the ramp.  
  
"We need a med team in here, now!"  
  
"Colonel?"  
  
"Get me a stretcher!"  
  
"Let's get her to the infirmary fast, move it people!" 

  


After the chaos that ensued when Allison came through the gate, she was taken to the infirmary where Dr. Lam took care of her injury. She woke up the next day and found Daniel sitting next to her bed reading a book. As she opened her eyes, Daniel immediately shut the book and called Dr. Lam over.  
  
"Ali, hey, how are you feeling?" Daniel says.  
  
"I feel like.. I got shot," Ali says, her voice hoarse. Daniel and Dr. Lam smile.  
  
"That's because you did, pretty badly too. Good thing you were right here, we were able to take care of you very quickly. If you hadn't been coming through the gate right as you got hit you may not have survived that," Dr. Lam says. "You might be in a little pain for a while but I can give you something for that if you want it,"  
  
"Thank you," Ali says. Lam nods and walks away.  
  
"So how was your first mission?" Daniel says jokingly.  
  
"Well I mean it seemed pretty calm at first but then there were a lot of people shooting at us and then I got shot so I would say it was pretty great," Ali replies with a laugh.  
  
Daniel smiles, "You did a great job, it might not feel that way because you got attacked but you got your team through the gate safely and that's what matters,"  
  
"Thanks Daniel," Ali says and smiles at her older brother. 

  


*2 days later*  
"You are free to go, just remember if you're in any pain come see me and I'll give you something for it," Dr. Lam says to Ali. Ali thanks Dr.Lam and climbs out of bed, grabbing the uniform that Daniel brought her to change into. After changing she heads to her quarters.  
  
As she arrives at her room she hears someone call her name and turns to see General Landry walking towards her.  
  
"Colonel, you've been discharged, good to see you on your feet again. How are you feeling?"  
  
"I'm good, thank you sir," she replies.  
  
"We're going to debrief at 0900 hours," Landry says.  
  
"Alright sir, I'll see you then, thank you," Ali says and the General nods before walking away.  
  
Ali enters her room and begins to write her mission report in the hour before her teams debrief with the General.  
  
She finishes her report about 10 minutes before 0900 and heads to the briefing room. When she arrives only Barnes is there and he stands when she enters.  
  
"Colonel, I am so sorry," he says.  
  
"It's okay Barnes, not your fault," she takes a seat next to her friend and he sits back down. Soon Dwight and Aston arrive and they also give their apologies which Ali dismisses as well.  
  
"Listen, I ordered you to go through and I knew the risk, it's my own fault, not yours, so no more apologies okay? I'm fine," she says and they all nod.  
  
When the General enters, the four officers stand up. "At ease," General Landry says and they all take their seats again and begin debriefing.  
  
"When we came through the gate there was no activity and Colonel Jackson told us to investiate the surrounding area," Aston says.  
  
"We barely made it to the tree line when I heard the branch snap and I signaled Major Barnes to halt. I thought I could hear movement in the trees so we stayed still until the first shot came," Ali says.  
  
"We all fell back to the gate and then the gliders came in and started shooting at us too. There were so many Jaffa and they had us surrounded. I think they planned this," Barnes continues.  
  
"Could any of you tell what mark the Jaffa had?" Landry asks.  
  
"No sir," Ali answers and the rest of the team shake their heads too.  
  
"Well we'll try to figure this out, maybe we can get some information from the Jaffa on Dakar, I'll let you all know when I have an update on this, thank you. You are dismissed," Landry says and gets up to go into his office.  
  
"Wow, and that was just our first mission," Barnes says and the rest of the team laughs.


	3. Problems

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter but Cam comes in the next one!

A few days after the attack on SG-15, General Landry calls Allison to his office.

"Colonel, we've spoken with the Jaffa on Dakara and they believe that the planet you visited was under Ba'al's control and the Jaffa that attacked you were unaware of the battle that occurred and that Ba'al has left," Landry says.

"Are we going to go back?" 

"The Free Jaffa are planning to go and inform Ba'al's Jaffa there of what has happened and hopefully convince them to join the Free Jaffa Nation. Your team will not be going back but I have another mission for you. SG-3 went to P4X-318 a few days ago and found a temple with writing on the walls but none of them knew the language. They showed the pictures to Dr. Jackson and he wanted to take a look so your team will be taking Dr. Jackson through since SG-3 is unavailable,"

Landry briefs the rest of SG-15 and Daniel on their mission and they leave right away.

"You excited Daniel? We finally get to work together," Ali says while they stand in front of the gate as it dials. 

"Yeah I am, this should be fun," Daniel says. When the gate finishes dialing, the team steps through.

When they arrive on the planet they are in a field with a forest off to one side. They see what looks like the temple they were sent to find, off in the distance. 

"Alright, Aston and Dwight stay here and guard the gate. Daniel and Barnes, we're going that temple," 

They find the temple not too far away and Daniel immediately begins translating the writing. 

"Barnes, do a perimeter check," Ali says and Kevin nods and walks away. Ali walks over to her brother who is studying the walls of the old temple. 

"Anything I can do to help?" she asks.

"Well this writing is a language I don't know but I think I can figure it out because it's similar to some I've seen before. If I'm right, this is talking about some kind of treasure that's inside the temple,"

"So you're gonna be a while?"

"Yeah, probably, I'll let you know when I figure this out,"

Ali nods and let's Daniel get back to work. She walks around the side of the temple and sees Major Barnes walking towards her.

"Colonel, finished the perimeter, no obvious signs of life but there are some stone ruins off to the South,"

"Okay, thank you Barnes. Stay with Dr. Jackson. I'm gonna head back to the gate, and get Aston and Dwight so we can go check out the other ruins," 

Ali then walks back to the gate and finds Dwight and Aston standing by the DHD talking and eating something. As she gets closer she realizes that it's some kind of fruit that looks similar to an apple. 

"Hey, what are you eating? Where did you get those?" Ali asks, curious because they didn't bring fruit off world with them. 

"Oh, Colonel, we found them on a tree over there. They're like apples, do you want one?" Dwight says, gesturing in the direction where they found them. Ali walks up to them and takes the fruit from Aston's hand just as he's about to take a bite. She carefully inspects it, it's almost like an apple but shaped differently and it's orange. 

"You idiots, you have no idea what this is. We are on an alien world," Ali says, throwing the fruit on the ground. "Dwight, drop it," Dwight drops his fruit.

"With all due respect Colonel, I don't see the problem with it, it's just... jus.." Aston's eyes begin to close and he falls forward. Ali reaches out to catch him and lowers him to the ground gently.

"Aston, c'mon wake up," Ali says as she feels for a pulse. "His pulse is weak, he's barely breathing. Dwight," Ali says and she turns around to find Dwight laying on the ground as well. "Damn it. Barnes, Daniel, get back to the gate right now, Aston and Dwight are down," Ali speaks into her radio and begins to dial the gate.

"Incoming wormhole, receiving a radio transmission from Colonel Jackson sir," 

"Colonel, how's the mission going?" Landry says.

"Sir, Dwight and Aston are both passed out, they ate some kind of fruit they found on the planet. Their pulses are weak," 

"Get them through the gate, we'll have medical teams waiting,"

Ali stays next to the two members of her team, waiting for Barnes and Daniel to come back. Soon she sees them running towards the gate and she stands up. 

"What the hell happened?" Daniel says when they get to her.

"They ate some fruit and passed out, we have to get them back home, now," Ali says and they both nod. Barnes grabs Dwight by the arms and pulls him up and half carries him to the gate. Ali and Daniel pick Aston up and put their arms around him, holding him up. 

When they get through the gate, Dwight and Aston are put on stretchers and taken to the infirmary.

"The three of you come to the briefing room now," Landry says to Daniel, Ali, and Kevin. 

They sit down in the briefing room and explain to the General what happened. When he hears all the details he dismisses them and heads to the infirmary to check on Dwight and Aston. After he leaves, Ali runs a hand through her hair and sighs. 

"I can't believe they ate alien fruit because it looked like an apple," Kevin says, shaking his head. Ali and Daniel nod in agreement. 

Barnes leaves the briefing room and then Daniel says he is going to his office. Ali sits at the table for a moment after the others leave and then she stands and walks over to the window and looks out at the gate, admiring it and wondering if every mission would end badly like this. 

After standing there for a minute she sighs and walks away to go to her quarters.

~~~~~~~  
After the alien fruit incident, Aston and Dwight both went into comas. Dr. Lam determined that the fruit had some kind of toxin in it that shut their bodies down entirely, she didn't know if the effects were permanent yet. Ali and Barnes continued to go on missions with other members of the SGC, but they didn't have a team anymore. 

Soon, Ali realized that she had been at the SGC for over a month which meant that Daniel would be leaving soon. Sam and Teal'c were already gone and she didn't know who would be taking over SG-1 yet.


	4. Treasure

Ch 4: Treasure  
One day as Ali is on her way to Landry's office to talk to him, she passes Walter in the hall.

"Is General Landry in his office?" she asks.

"He's finishing a briefing with SG-12 and then he's meeting with Colonel Mitchell," Walter says. When she hears that name she smiles so big that her face hurts. 

"Thanks Walter," she says and she runs the rest of the way down the hall to Landry's office. When she steps inside she sees the one and only Cameron Mitchell with his back to her and she smiles even wider. 

"Cam," she says and he turns around. His eyes brighten and he grins before he takes the few steps forward and wraps his arms around her. 

"Ali," he says with his chin resting on the top of her head. He closes his eyes and smiles wider, he didn't expect to see the woman he loves today and he couldn't be happier. He always liked her, from the day that they met during basic training. He loved everything about her from her warm and caring green eyes to her shiny, shoulder length, brown hair. They trained together and then they ended up piloting F-302's together and now they're both at the SGC, somehow they always make it back to each other. 

They pull away after a minute and share a smile. 

"I have a meeting with General Landry right now but we should talk later. Okay?" Cam says and Ali nods. 

"Just find me when you're done," she backs out of the room and smiles at Cam before turning and walking away. When she turns the corner at the end of the hall she stops and leans her back against the wall. She takes a few deep breaths and tries to fight the giant smile on her face, which is impossible. Cameron Mitchell makes her feel whole inside and now he's at the SGC. She knows she's going to have a hard time hiding her feelings for him now.  
She goes to Daniel's office and finds him frantically packing his things for his Atlantis trip the next day. 

"Need some help?" she asks and he looks up. 

"Yes, please," he says and gives her some things to do. 

After about 15 minutes of packing, Cam knocks on the door and both Ali and Daniel look up. He changed out of his formal uniform into the green SGC uniform.

"Dr. Jackson, Ali," he says, nodding at each of the siblings. 

"Colonel," Daniel says, slightly surprised to see him there. 

"My friends call me Cameron," Cam says as he shakes Daniel's hand.

"Daniel, and you know my sister." he says looking between the two of them. 

"Yeah," Ali and Cam say in unison. They look at each other and laugh. 

Daniel nods and looks back at Cameron. "How are you?" he asks.

"I'm good, thanks," Cam says.

"Yeah, I heard you were coming,"

"Yeah, they told me you were leaving,"

”Yes, finally,” Daniel walks over to a shelf to grab some books, “You don't, uh, you don't wanna help?"

"No, actually, I came to see if I could talk you into staying,"

"You're kidding,"

"I've been given command of SG-1," Cam says and Ali's eyes widen, this meant they may end up on the same team. 

"Wow, well, good for you. You deserve it," Daniel grabs some more things to put into a box. 

"I think the SGC still needs you," 

"Well there's lots of other guys,"

"You're the worlds foremost expert on the ancients," Cam says. 

"Which is why I'm going to Atlantis, the city of the Ancients. And also why I'm recommending my sister here, who happens to also know quite a few languages, including Ancient," Daniel says and Cam raises an eyebrow, looking at Ali. 

"Daniel taught me Ancient when I joined the F-302 squad, and I don't exactly have a team right now so," Ali says as she runs a hand through her hair. Cam smiles softly at her and turns back to Daniel. 

“I’ll gladly put Ali on the team but it’s not much of a team with just the two of us. General O'Neill gave me the choice of any posting I wanted, I chose SG-1. That meant Colonel Carter, Teal'c, and yourself not two letters, a dash, and a number,"

Daniel is barely paying attention to Cam's speech and only says "That's nice," which makes Ali roll her eyes. She is hoping that Cam can convince her brother to stay, she doesn't want him to leave. If she could join SG-1 and work with Sam, Teal'c, her brother, AND Cam, that would be like a dream come true for her.

Cam continues his speech to Daniel and talks about wanting to learn from the best.

"This is all very flattering," Daniel starts and Cam stops him.

"That's not the point," 

"I'm sorry, I know I owe you one.. We all do," Daniel says. Ali sees Cam's eyes change when Daniel says that. He is remembering the battle, something that still hurts for him to think about. It was only 2 years ago and his recovery was very intense. It's still fresh in her mind and she wasn't injured like Cam was. 

"Listen, Jackson, I don't want you to stay because you think you owe me one. Unless, of course, you're considering it," 

"Oh, no, no. I was just gonna offer you my apartment," Daniel says and looks at Cameron, he shrugs and puts the keys on the table and leaves the room.

Cam stands there for a minute and Ali can tell he is upset that Daniel won't stay. "Right," he says. He looks at Ali who offers an apologetic smile. She stands up and walks over to him. 

"Sorry, my brother can be... stubborn. I understand why you want the original SG-1, I do too, maybe we can still convince them to stay," Ali says.

“Well for now it’s just us, so welcome to SG-1, Mouse," Cam uses Ali's call sign and they both laugh. He throws an arm around her shoulder and they leave Daniel’s office together.  
~~~~~~~  
Cam and Ali visit Teal'c on Dakara and they have no luck with him either. They also call Sam at Area 51 and have the same outcome.  
~~~~~~~

When Cameron arrived the day before, General Landry gave him some personnel files and told him to pick members for his team so Cameron goes to interview some of them. When he is done he finds Ali and they head to the cafeteria to get lunch and catch up. They sit down at a table in the back of the room with their food.

“So, how did it go with the interviews?” Ali asks when they sit down.

“One guy came in, sat down and told me his name, and then I asked what he could bring to the team and he just dropped to the ground and did 100 push ups. He would’ve kept going but I stopped him,”

“Well, push ups are very helpful in any situation. When being attacked by Jaffa, it helps to just do some push ups. They leave you alone right away,” Ali replies sarcastically and laughs. Cam joins in and they joke a little more about it. 

“So how long have you been here?" Cam asks when they stop laughing. 

"A little over a month now. I came here with Major Barnes. We both got offered jobs here by General O'Neill a few months ago. I took some time off before I came here though," Ali takes a bite of her sandwich.

"Barnes is here too? Haven't seen him yet. Earlier you said you didn't have a team anymore, what happened?" Cam says and continues to eat while Ali talks. 

"Well, I was in command of SG-15 for a few weeks. The first mission we went on, we were attacked by Jaffa and I got hit pretty badly. I was in the infirmary for a few days and when I was better we went on another mission," Ali tells Cam about what happened with her team members eating alien fruit and going into comas. 

"Well, that gives me a lot to look forward to I guess," Cam laughs. 

Before Ali can respond, the gate alarm goes off, indicating an incoming wormhole. 

"Colonel Jackson and Colonel Mitchell, report to the gate room," Walter's voice says over the loudspeaker. They share a look and Cam takes one last bite of food before the two of them run to the gate room. 

"What's up, sir?" Cam says when they arrive. 

"I wanted you two here for this, SG-12 sent word 5 minutes ago, they should be arriving momentarily," Landry says. Cam and Ali stand next to him and wait. 

The iris opens and Ali watches as a woman dressed fully in tight, black, leather clothes steps through the gate with two members of SG-12 right behind her. 

"Well," she says, placing a hand on her hip, "You all have me surrounded," 

"Welcome to the SGC, I'm General Landry," 

"Vala. Vala Mal Doran. Thank you so much for the lovely greeting party, we all had a wonderful time searching each other, didn't we boys?" the woman says. The SG-12 members behind her share a look with each other and shake their heads and Ali holds back a laugh, she liked this girl already. Vala steps off the ramp with her eyes on Cam and says, "I know we haven't met. That, I'm sure I would remember," Okay, maybe Ali didn't like her so much… 

General Landry introduces Ali and then Cam who says, "Nice outfit," Ali rolls her eyes at him. 

Vala thanks him and walks past the three of them. "Well I would normally be thrilled to have so much testosterone at my disposal but, where's my Daniel?"

Ali and Cam share a look and Landry leads Vala to the briefing room with the two Colonels following. 

"Her Daniel?" Cam whispers to Ali who stifles a laugh.

"Hey, maybe she can get him to stay here," Ali says jokingly and Cam laughs. 

Daniel is called to the briefing room where they are all sitting. He walks in and Vala smiles but Daniel just looks annoyed. "Okay, where is it?" he says.

"Nice to see you too, how have you been?" Vala says.

"The tablet, the one that leads to the incredible Ancient buried treasure,"

"There is no tablet, I lied. Had to tell you in person, I'm pregnant," Vala says. Everyone makes annoyed sounds or rolls their eyes. "Pretty sure it's yours, anyway there's at least a 1 in.. 10 chance," she winks at Cam. Daniel, who seems completely over this whole meeting, turns to walk out the door but Landry stops him. 

Landry says that Daniel is the reason that they let Vala through the gate and Daniel tells him he needs to finish packing. 

"The Daedlus doesn't leave for another 12 hours, at least have a look," Landry says as he leaves the room. Daniel sighs and steps forward to look at the tablet and tells Vala that she got ripped off because it doesn't make any sense. 

"It's written in code," Vala says. She informs them that she knows the key to the code and that the treasure is on Earth. Vala and Daniel go to Daniel's office to work on translating the tablet while Cam and Ali sit and talk some more, joking about Vala and Daniel. Soon the Colonels get a call that Daniel and Vala have both passed out and are in the infirmary. 

Vala put some kind of Goa'uld bracelets on both of their wrists and they can't take them off. Teal'c is called in from Dakara in the hopes that he may have some knowledge of the bracelets. 

Teal'c, Ali, and Cam sit by Daniel's bed, waiting for him to wake up. When he wakes up Teal'c tells him about the bracelets and how if the wearers are separated for a certain period of time they would both become ill and die. Vala tells them that she knows how to take the bracelets off but she won't do it until they find the treasure. 

"We could just find the treasure. The Daedlus left 2 hours ago, sorry," Cam says to Daniel who lays back in his bed and frowns. "Look, the tablet is written in Ancient code, right? I know it's not the Lost City of Atlantis we're looking for here but whatever it is, could be worth finding," Cam pauses. "Or you just have to marry that chick," 

"Yeah, let's make babies!" Vala says with a grin. 

Everyone agrees to go on the mission and Daniel works on decoding the tablet and soon enough, he figure's it out. The tablet doesn't tell them where to look but it mentions Merlin. Daniel thinks that the treasure is in Glastonbury, England, underground and they can find it using the Asgard sensors on the Prometheus. Daniel presents the information to General Landry who approves the mission.

The team boards the Prometheus and they go into orbit. Ali offers to take Vala with her to the women's locker room while she gets changed for the mission and the boys go to do the same thing across the hall. 

"Are you sure you don't want a change of clothes? I mean, not that I don't love that outfit but I just thought I would offer," Ali says while she puts her vest on. 

"No thank you, I like to think that this outfit makes Daniel a little crazy, if you know what I mean," she winks at Ali. 

"Um, I don't think we really got a proper introduction earlier. I'm Ali Jackson, Daniel's sister," 

"Oh, his sister, hm.. Well you must have many, many funny stories about Daniel," Vala wiggles her eyebrows. 

"Oh, yes I do, he was a funny kid," 

"Tell me, tell me, tell me!" Vala claps her hands excitedly. Ali laughs and begins to tell stories about Daniel. 

"Okay well one time, when he was about 15, we were with a foster family that was fostering another little girl too. She was about 4 and she loved playing dress up,"

"Oh, I like where this is going," Vala says and Ali smiles.

"So one day, I was looking for Daniel and I found him in her room, wearing a pink sparkly tutu and a tiara. And they were having a tea party. I have a picture! Our foster parents came in and started taking a whole bunch of pictures, because they thought it was hilarious, and they gave me one of them," Ali looks through her backpack to find the picture. She finds it and hands it to Vala. 

Vala looks at the picture for a few seconds before she starts laughing, Ali looks at it over her shoulder and starts laughing too. Soon they're both laughing so hard that a few tears roll down their cheeks and their sides start to hurt. Their laughing is interrupted by Lieutenant Marks on the ship's intercom telling Ali to report to the control room. They calm down and Ali grabs her backpack and gun and they make their way to the control room. They meet up with Cam, Teal'c, and Daniel in the hall and all walk there together. Ali and Vala share a look and start laughing again. Daniel and Cam turn around and look at them. 

"I do not want to know what they were talking about in there," Daniel says to Cam. 

"No, you really don't Daniel," Ali replies through her laughter.

When they arrive in the control room, Marks tells them that they have located a large cavern connected to some tunnels and smaller caves. It is being protected by a shield and they are unable to use the Asgard beaming to get inside. 

"Rings," Vala says and everyone looks at her. "The Ancients were the gate builders right? And they invented the rings too, they had to get in and out of there somehow and I know this ship has rings,"

Marks tells them it should work but their radios won't work. They go to the ring platform. 

The rings take the team to a dark cave, with the only lights coming from their flashlights and a green light at the other end of the cavern They all step away from the rings and walk around the cave. 

There is a stone pedastal in the middle of the room and as the team walks towards it a sword appears within the stone.

"The sword in the stone," Cam says.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Vala asks and Daniel explains the story of it. Cam steps up to it and tries to pull it from the stone.

"It's in there pretty good," he says, stepping away. 

Suddenly, a hologram of an old man appears behind the sword. 

"Welcome, ye knights of the round table. Men of honor, followers of the path of righteousness," the hologram goes on speaking of knowledge and truth of spirit and the treasure. "Prove ye worthy, and all, shall be revealed," Then he disappears and Cam walks up to where he was standing and looks around. Ali and Teal'c walk past the others and explore the cave some more. 

Daniel talks about what the hologram said and how fascinating it is and Vala interrupts him, "Yes, yes, yes, fascinating is the one thing it's not. How do we prove ye worthy and get on to be revealed?" 

"I have no idea," Daniel says. "But something tells me truth of spirit may be a problem for you," 

"You know nothing about me," Vala snaps. 

"Except that everything that comes out of your mouth is a lie," Daniel retorts.

"Don't make me separate you two," Cam says.

"Perhaps there is something in these tunnels," Teal'c says as he walks towards one and Ali moves towards the other one. 

"See, that is why he's here, genius. We're gonna split up, I'm with Teal'c, Ali you're with the loving couple," he says and walks over to her and the tunnels. "Sorry, sweetheart," he says when he passes her. Ali rolls her eyes. 

"Okay, c'mon you two," she says and waits for them at the entrance of the 2nd tunnel. "Lead the way, Danny," she says and follows behind them. Ali silently curses Cameron for not taking her with him while she listens to her brother arguing with Vala. 

"I'm sure if there is a monster down here it's going to be much more scared of you than you are of it. Especially once it gets to know you," Daniel says and Vala stops and frowns. She turns around to look at Ali. 

"Hey, don't listen to him. If he says stuff like that, just think of the picture I showed you, that's what I always do. Imagining him in a tutu really helps to boost your confidence," Ali whispers and Vala laughs. Ali gestures for her to keep walking and she turns around and follows Daniel. 

Soon, the three of them come across an opening to a small cave with only a stone table inside. When Vala and Daniel walk up to the door, some lights come on around the cave and the room is then illuminated by fire. 

"If you immediately know the candlelight is fire," 

"Huh?" Vala says.

"Nothing," Daniel replies. He and Vala step into the room and just as Ali steps forward to go in as well, a stone wall lowers and blocks the entrance, trapping her outside, and Daniel and Vala inside.

"Daniel!" she makes a fist and hits the wall. 

"Ali, it's okay, I think we have to figure out a riddle or something, just stay there," 

"Like I have anywhere else to go," she says under her breath. She slowly paces back and forth in front of the door to the cave. 

After a few minutes Ali hears Vala yell, "We're already trapped in here, how much worse can it get?" and then there is a loud noise and the room starts shaking.

"Guys, what's happening?" Ali yells.

"The ceiling is coming down on us," Vala yells back.

Ali hears her brother and Vala yelling and trying to figure out the riddle and then suddenly the rumbling and their talking stops. "Daniel!" she shouts and smacks the stone wall separating them. Then the wall and ceiling raise and Ali sees her brother and Vala standing there. 

Ali lets out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding when she sees that they are safe.

"Wow, good thing you know your Ancient proverbs otherwise we'd be," Vala pauses and her eyes widen. "Mitchell," 

"Teal'c" Daniel says. Ali takes off running for the other tunnel with Daniel and Vala right behind her. 

Ali arrives first and runs up to the door to the cave. "Cam!" she yells. 

"Ali!" he replies and she sighs in relief. Daniel and Vala show up next to her a moment after.

"Teal'c!" Daniel yells.

"Daniel Jackson," Teal'c replies in a strained voice as if he is holding up something very heavy. 

"Hey, we've got a little problem in here for you Ancient experts," Cam says. 

Ali and Daniel share a look and Daniel asks Cam what the puzzle is. Cameron describes the puzzle and then the writing. Ali tries to picture the symbols he is describing.

"Reflect, it means reflect," Daniel says and he frantically tries to figure out what it means.

"Reflect on the eightfold path!" Ali says.

"Yes, the eightfold path to enlightenment," Daniel adds.

"Yeah, that tells me exactly nothing," Cam yells.

"Sorry, but we can't see the stones that you have to put in order!" Ali yells back.

"Reflect on the eightfold, eight.." Cameron mutters under his breath. He holds one of the stones in his hand with his thumb over part of the symbol so it looks like a four. He then quickly starts moving the stones around and when he places the final one, the ceiling and the shaking stops. 

"Teal'c!" Daniel yells. Ali places a hand on the wall and looks at the ground.

"Look, I didn't hear any screaming or squishing sounds so," Vala says and just as she finishes her sentence the door to the cave goes back up and Ali looks up to see Cam and Teal'c laying on the ground, with the ceiling almost about to crush them. It starts to go up too and Cameron and Teal'c stand up. Ali smiles, glad to see that they are okay. 

"Yeah, thanks, the symbols were actually 1 through 8 in the mirror image," Cam says and he steps out of the cave. Ali follows him down the tunnel. "Were you worried about me?" Cam whispers to her with a smirk on his face.

Ali rolls her eyes, "Maybe," she says. Cam's smirk gets bigger and he winks at her. 

The team emerges from the tunnel and Cam runs up to the sword again, "Passed the tests, so, this should work," he puts his flashlight and gun down and grabs the handle of the sword with one hand and then his other hand and pulls. Ali watches as he pulls the sword from the stone very easily. He admires the sword for a moment and then a knight dressed in silver armor with a sword in his hands, appears behind Cam. 

"Uh oh," Ali says and Teal'c moves towards the rest of the team with his gun aimed at the knight. Cameron turns around to see the knight behind him and the knight raises his sword to fight. 

"Should have known it wouldn't be that easy," Cam says and he raises his sword too. The knight steps forward and swings his sword at Cam who blocks it. The team moves out of the way and Cameron and the knight move towards them and continue their fight. 

"You uh, you done this before?" Daniel asks when Cam gets close to him and Vala. 

"Fight a knight in armor? No, can't say that I have," Cam replies.

"Well you're doing good," 

"Took a little fencing in college," Cam says and swings at the knight again. The knights sword clashes with his again and they hold their swords together for a minute, each trying to overpower the other. Cam pulls away first and ducks down to avoid another swing. "Okay, I could use a little help," he backs away. Teal'c and Ali aim their weapons at the knight but when they fire, the bullets go right through him. 

"It appears to be a hologram," Teal'c says. 

"A hologram?" Cam says and stands still, assuming that if it's a hologram it can't hurt him. The knight hits Cam in the back with his sword and Cam falls to the ground. 

"I don't think it actually cut you," Vala says. 

"Well it hurt like hell," Cam says and he starts to stand up. The knight pulls his sword back and prepares to hit Cam again.

''Cam!" Ali yells to warn him and Cameron stands and manages to block the knight. They continue to fight and the knight hits Cam again. 

"I don't know, I don't think he's actually that good," Vala comments.

"Okay, so, I flunked fencing," Cam says and gets up again, blocking another hit. The knight hits him in the leg, knocking him to the ground again. 

"Colonel Mitchell, the sword," Teal'c says and holds out his hand. Cam throws the sword to Teal'c and to his surprise, the sword goes right through both Teal'c and Ali and lands on the ground behind them. 

The knight moves forward with his sword pointed at the ground and aims to put it in Cam's chest but Cam rolls away just in time. He runs over to where the sword is and grabs it. The knight follows and, before Cam can even stand up, hits him again. Cam lays on the ground and the knight prepares to hit him again. 

"Okay, that thing is going to kill him," Vala says.

"Everybody get to the rings!" Daniel yells and Teal'c moves to Cam's side, grabbing him by his vest and pulling him up. Cam pushes Teal'c away and continues to fight the knight with a sudden burst of power. Cam hits the knight again and again and finally thrusts the sword straight into him. He slashes at the knight one more time and then the knight slowly disappears. 

When the knight disappears, Cam falls onto the ground. "Oh come on, that's gotta be it," he says, exhausted from the fight. Teal'c walks over and pulls Cameron to his feet. The rest of the team walks over and joins them. 

"I don't understand, we solved the riddles," Vala says. "Well, he solved one and he solved one and he won the fight," she gestures to Cam and Daniel. 

"And what? Nothing?" Cam says, still recovering from his fight with the knight, he leans on Ali for support. 

"But you're the only one that defeated the knight. That sword was obviously designed to sense whoever pulled it from the stone. What if there's sensors detecting us?" Daniel suggests. 

"Are you suggesting that we should leave?" Teal'c says. 

"It's worth a try," 

Cameron agrees and goes to the buttons that control the rings and the rest of the team moves into the rings to leave. 

"If nothing happens just, join us," Daniel says and Ali waves to Cam before the rings come down and they are transported back to the ship. 

Soon after the team arrives on the Prometheus, the rings are activated again. Cameron appears covering his head with his hands with dirt falling down around him that followed through with the rings. The team steps forward and Daniel asks what happened. 

"The whole place is collapsing, must have done something wrong," Cam says. Vala, who was walking towards the SG-1 members, turns around and walks the other way. Everyone looks at her, assuming she took something. 

"What did you take?" Daniel says. 

"What?" Vala says, turning around. 

"Truth of spirit," Daniel says and Vala attempts to defend herself but Daniel interrupts, repeating truth of spirit more firmly and asking again what she took. She reluctantly pulls a gold coin frrom between her breasts and hands it to Daniel. 

Cam takes the coin and goes back down to the cave to put it back and hopefully reveal the treasure. He returns the coin to its place which stops the collapse of the cave. When the treasure still hasn't appeared, Cam presses the buttons to go back to the Prometheus. Then he stops and grabs the sword. When the sword has been returned to the stone, there is a flash of gold and the treasure appears around Cameron. 

Cam returns to the ship and gets the team and some more crew members to come down and examine the treasure. Ali and Vala sit within the piles of gold and talk, putting on necklaces and tiaras they find.

Soon they find a large gray object with a pointed blue stone on the top. They take that and other items back to the SGC with them. Daniel believes that the thing they found is an Ancient communication device.

Ali enters Dr. Lee's lab to find Daniel and Vala arguing about the bracelets. Cam looks up when she comes in the room and they share a look. He nods to her and interrupts Daniel and Vala's fight. 

"Focus. Maybe we should focus on the task at hand," Cam says and the two stop their argument and everyone moves to stand around the Ancient device. 

Dr. Lee explains its power source and Daniel explains the stones. The stones had been used before by General O'Neill and a civilian, but they were also made to be used in the communication device. 

"So any one of us can, take the pony ride," Cam says when Lee and Daniel finish explaining that since O'Neill used the stones before, they can be used now by people without the Ancient gene. 

"Yeah I figured that would be me. I mean I did miss the Daedalus for this so," Daniel says.

"He's gonna milk that one for a really long time," Ali says to Cam. 

"I figured he would," Cam replies to her and looks back at Daniel, "Well no one's going to make an argument against that. You are the worlds foremost expert on the Ancients, but we've got two stones,"

"One for me," Ali picks up the second stone. 

"No, I have to go," Vala takes the stone from Ali's hand. She then makes an argument about how she and Daniel are linked and it could be a transportation device. Ali sighs and doesn't argue back. Daniel decides to try the device and Lee goes to watch from the observation room. 

"Good luck," Ali says. She and Cam then go to the observation room together.

They watch as Daniel and Vala place their stones in two random spots. First, nothing happens and then the blue stone on top of the device lights up and both Daniel and Vala collapse. Ali's eyes widen and Cam calls for a medical team. 

Ali moves to go back down to the lab and check on them but Dr. Lee stops her. "We don't know whats going on yet, for all we know you could end up just like them," She glares at him and stands next to Cam. They watch worriedly as a medical team in hazmat suits comes in and begins to run tests on Daniel and Vala and the Anient device. 

Doctors Lee and Lam fail to find any energy, radiation, or contagions and take off their hazmat suits. Lam says that they are in a sleep state. They decide to not remove the stones because they don't know what could happen. 

All they can do is wait.


	5. Wait

Ali spends most of her time sitting in the observation room, watching and worrying about Daniel and Vala. Cam comes in and finds her sitting there, she looks up when he enters and smiles.

"Hey, how are they?" Cam sits down in the chair next to her.

"Hey. No change, I still think we should just remove the stones," she sighs and rubs her face with her hand. 

"I know, we're gonna figure this out, jus-" Cam is interrupted when Dr. Lam says that Vala's heart rate is going up and she is in distress. 

The two Colonel's share a look and they both get up to go down to the isolation room. 

"Pull the stones," Cam says when they walk in. Dr. Lee goes over to the device and tries to pull one of the stones off. 

"I can't," he says. They keep trying and Vala keeps getting worse. Lam gives her a sedative and then she goes into cardiac arrest. Lam shocks her with the defibrilator and Cam pulls out his gun, aiming at the device. 

"Cam, no. We don't know what that could do to them," Ali says and he lowers his gun. 

Vala flatlines and Lam keeps shocking her, trying to get her normal heart rhythm back. 

"I'm calling it," Lam says after a few more minutes. 

"She's dead?" Cam says and Ali struggles to hold back her emotions. She had just met Vala and really liked her, she didn't want to lose her friend. It also made her worry for her brother, if this happened to Vala, it could happen to Daniel too. 

"I'm sorry," Lam replies. 

Ali moves to Vala's side and sits down in the chair by her bed. She takes Vala's hand in hers and closes her eyes. Cam stands behind Ali and places a hand on her shoulder. 

Dr. Lam tells them that Daniel is stable and Lee says he doesn't know how to stop the device. "At the very least we need to find a way to get that bracelet off of Dr. Jackson, they're still linked. Without Vala he'll probab-" Lam is interrupted when Vala's heart monitor starts back up. Everyone looks at it. "She's got a heartbeat," Lam says. 

Ali backs away from Vala to let the doctors check her out. She looks up at Cam who shares her scared expression.   
~~~~~~~~~

A briefing is held to update General Landry of Daniel and Vala's condition. Cameron, Ali, Teal'c, and Dr. Lam meet with the General to discuss their plan or lack thereof. Following the briefing Landry asks for a private conversation with Teal'c, Cam and Ali leave the briefing room together. They go to the mess hall to get some food before they head back to the observation room to watch over their friends. 

They sit down with their food and talk. 

"This sucks and I don't think talking about it any more is gonna help us or them so let's just have 30 minutes of normal, okay?" Cam says.

"Deal," Ali answers and they spend the next 30 minutes talking and reminiscing about their days in basic training and the fun times they had. When they finish their food they head to the observation room and sit down going back to a worried silence between them. 

The General enters the room and both of the Colonel's move to stand at attention but the General stops them. "At ease Colonels. How are they doing?" 

"No change, sir," Cam replies.

"I know you're both concerned for them but I've got something else for you to do," the General pulls up another chair and sits in between the Colonel's. He tells them that some kind of missionary showed up on P3X-241 and is performing miracles. The General asks them to take SG-12 and check it out. They reluctantly leave Daniel and Vala and go gear up for the mission. 

The team arrives on P3X-241 to find a man with a staff preaching to the people of the planet. 

"Believe in the truth of all things, and you too may find the path to enlightenment," the man finishes his speech as Cam, Ali, and Dr. Lindsay, who was already on the planet, approach. 

"And a man has no greater thing under the sun, than eat, drink, and be married," Cam walks up to the man. "My grandma was a bit of a bible thumper, weekends at Grandma's meant long, long Sunday's at St. Hilda's Church of the grand epiphany. Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell, how you doin'?" 

"I am a Prior of the Ori," he says simply. 

"Nice to meet you," Cam replies.

"Your arrival here was foreseen," the Prior walks past Cam and Ali, towards the gate. 

"No kidding. So you see the future do you?" 

"Lessons of days gone by teach us what will come to pass,"

"Well I'm a bit of a history buff myself, doesn't help me pick the lotto numbers though," Cam pauses, "So, where you from?" 

"Where we come from and where we are going, are all the same," Ali rolls her eyes, this Prior is beginning to get on her nerves. And then she hears her brother's name leave the Prior's mouth and she quickly turns her head to look at Cam. They share a look and then Cam looks back at the Prior. 

"You know Dr. Jackson, do you?" Cam says.

"From him did we learn of your need," 

"Our need for what?" Ali says.

"The revelation of your destiny," he replies.   
~~~~~~~

After their conversation with the Prior, Cam suggests bringing the Prior back to Earth. They dial home and ask Landry for permission. Once they recieve that, they go through the gate with the Prior in tow. 

Cam takes the Prior to Daniel and Vala to see if he could disconnect them but all he says is that it is the "will of the Ori". 

General Landry, who is meeting with the new Jaffa leader Gerak, asks for the Prior to be brought to the briefing room so he and Gerak can meet him. 

Cam brings the Prior there and meets up with Ali on the way. They arrive in the briefing room and Ali sits down next to Teal'c, giving him a small smile. The Prior, Landry, and Gerak begin to talk and Gerak tells him that they do not believe in any god. 

"You do not believe in a higher power?" The Prior says, disbelievingly.

"Well it's complicated. There are a lot of different points of view about that subject around here," Landry says.

"Jaffa have recently shed the dominance of false gods that have enslaved us for many generations," Teal'c explains. 

Gerak asks about enlightenment to which the Prior replies, "Origin will guide you on this path. Those who revere its wisdom will be uplifted. I have come to spread the word to the unbelievers, who have been, sheltered and raised by evil," 

Ali looks at Teal'c who raises an eyebrow and looks as annoyed and skeptical as her. 

The Prior continues with his preaching until Walter enters the room and whispers something in General Landry's ear.

"I'm very sorry, you'll have to excuse us for a moment, please continue," Landry says as he stands up and leaves the room, telling Cam and Ali to follow him. Ali gladly stands up, placing a hand on Teal'c's shoulder as she leaves to say good luck. She walks to the door where Cam stands waiting for her. He lets her go first and follows behind her. In the hall they find Dr. Lam and Ali's heart immediately sinks. 

"They woke up, just for a moment and then they lost conciousness again," she informs them. Cam asks if they said anything. "Yes they did," she says. Lam tells the General and Colonels that Daniel and Vala warned her that the Priors shouldn't be trusted. 

They enter the briefing room again and the Colonels, along with the few Airman in the room, point their guns at the Prior. Gerak and his Jaffa stand up. 

"What is the meaning of this?" Gerak says to Landry. 

"I'm very sorry, we've just recieved some information about our visitor here that demands we take every precaution," Landry says.

"We'll have to take the staff, sir," Cam says and nods to the Airman nearest to the the Prior who grabs it. "And you'll have to come with us,"

"I demand to know what you have learned," Gerak says angrily. 

The Prior begins to slowly back away from the table, "All I wish to do is spread the word of the Ori to your world," he says. 

"Actually, that was never going to happen," Landry says. 

"Then I must leave at once," 

"That's not gonna happen either," Ali says.

"Hallowed are the Ori," The Prior says and his staff flys from the Airman's hand into the Prior's. It begins glowing and everyone tenses, waiting for him to do something. Suddenly the Prior bursts into flames. He burns for a few seconds and then he and the flames disappear. 

Right after the Prior disappears, Walter's voice comes on the speaker saying, "Code blue, medical emergency. Observation lab one. Repeat, code blue," Ali doesn't wait for anyone to tell her to go and takes off running for the lab. Cam and Teal'c are right behind her. 

"Same as before only this time it's both of them," Dr. Lam says when they enter the room. The three teammates walk straight to the Ancient device and Dr. Lee follows them. He tells them that they can't blow it up because it would react badly. 

"Perhaps we should send it through the Stargate," Teal'c says. Cameron and Ali immediately know his plan and go into action. 

"Genius," Cameron says, he unhooks the wires from the device. He and Teal'c pick it up and begin to carry it out of the room. "Ali, go dial the gate," he says.

"Where to?" she says, following them out of the room. 

"Wherever," he replies and she runs to the control room while they make their way to the gate room. 

"Walter, we gotta dial the gate," she says when she enters the room. She tells him to dial anywhere and he begins the dialing process. Landry enters when the dialing begins and asks what they're doing. 

"We had an idea, Mitchell and Teal'c are coming," Ali replies. The gate then reaches the sixth chevron, "Stop! Wait till they get here," she says and Walter stops the dialing. 

When Cam and Teal'c enter the gate room Cam yells, "Now!" and the dialing is resumed. When the event horizon opens up, Teal'c and Mitchell throw the Ancient device into the unstable wormhole, destroying it. The phone rings a second later and Landry goes over to answer it. Ali watches as he picks up the phone, she tries to decipher his facial expressions so she can figure out if it is good or bad news. He hangs up the phone and steps forward to the microphone and presses the button so Cam and Teal'c can hear him too.

"Dr. Lam says, that Daniel and Vala have regained consciousness. Well done!" Landry says and Ali breathes a sigh of relief. Cameron and Teal'c celebrate their victory and Ali shares a smile with the General. 

Allison goes down the stairs to go see her brother and her friend now that they are awake. She arrives in the medical lab and runs up to Daniel to give him a hug, an awkward one since he is in the bed still, but much needed. She then goes over to Vala and sits on the edge of her bed. 

"Never do that again, please," she says, the exhaustion clear in her voice. She hasn't slept much since Daniel and Vala passed out that day, always watching them from the observation room. She sits with the two for a while and talks to them. Landry, Cameron, and Teal'c join them to hear about what Daniel and Vala experienced in the other galaxy. They listen while Vala tells them about being burnt alive, twice, and Daniel tells them all about the Ori and their connection to the Ancients in the Milky Way. 

Dr. Lam eventually comes in and asks that everyone leaves so that Daniel and Vala can get some rest. Everyone says their goodbyes and leaves.

Cam and Ali walk down the hall to go to their neighboring quarters together. They get in the elevator and go down to the right floor and walk to their quarters, talking the whole time.

"Well, I can actually get some sleep now that I'm not worried about my brother," Ali says when they arrive at their rooms. 

Cameron laughs, "Yeah, me too. Goodnight, Al,"

"Uh, wait a sec," Ali says and Cam looks confused as she walks towards him. When she reaches him she wraps her arms around him and he is surprised at first but hugs back. 

"What's this for?" he says with a laugh. 

"Thank you, you and Teal'c had that idea and you saved Daniel, so thank you," she mumbles into his chest. She pulls away after a few more seconds and smiles up at him. "Goodnight, Cam," she says and turns on her heel, walking back into her quarters and closing the door behind her.

Cameron stares at the door for a second and then laughs quietly, shaking his head he opens the door to his quarters and goes inside.  
~~~~~

When Daniel and Vala are released from the medical lab, Vala removes the bracelets linking them together. Teal'c and Ali watch as she uses a red stone to unlock the bracelets. Daniel thanks her and then Cam shows up in the doorway. 

"General Landry is ready for us," he says, leaning on the door frame. Teal'c and Daniel walk out first and Vala hooks her arm through Ali's and they walk out together. 

The two girls talk while they walk to the briefing room. Vala tells her more about the Ori galaxy and Ali tells Vala about her lunch date and hug with Cameron, to which Vala wiggles her eyebrows and winks at Ali. Over a short time, they had become good friends and Ali was sad to know that Vala would be leaving Earth soon. 

They arrive in the briefing room and sit down, General Landry enters and they begin their briefing. 

"So you think we should expect more of these Priors to show up?" Landry asks.

"I would be very surprised if they didn't," Daniel says. 

Cam asks how they can get there, seeing as their galaxy is so far away. 

"I suspect the Ori have the power to make a lot of things happen," Vala answers. 

"You think the Ancients here in our galaxy will continue to stop the Ori from using their power to attack us directly?" Landry asks, looking at Daniel who replies that he hopes they will. 

"I doubt it. If people in this galaxy want to believe in the Ori or even help the Ori destroy people that don't believe in them.. the Ancients can't stop that," Ali says. 

"So, how do we fight these guys? And I mean the message as much as the men," Cameron asks. "A lot of folks out there are gonna buy what these guys are selling," 

"Hopefully now many have been educated to the ways of false gods," Teal'c says. 

"Yes, but we're not talking about humans with snakes in their heads with a slightly better understanding of technology," Vala says. 

"She's right, the power of the Ori isn't false and Prior's can offer what seems like proof of god. The Jaffa may be the most willing to accept this new religion, they just lost their gods so I think some of them might jump on this," Ali agrees. 

"Proof of powerful beings is not proof of god," Landry says, looking at Ali. 

"I didn't say it was, but that's what its gonna look like to a lot of people," she replies. 

"Look, just because we know there are some beings on a higher plane of existence than ourselves, does not mean there's not an order of being higher than them," Cam says. "At least I reckon that's what my grandma would say,"

The briefing ends with Landry standing up, Ali and Cameron stand too and Cameron asks, "So, business as usual, sir?"

"Let them bring it. We'll use our strengths against their weaknesses. That's a pretty good strategy for any kind of business you're in," Landry answers and then turns to Daniel and Vala and says, "I'm glad you two are okay," before walking into his office. 

"Amen," Cam says and Ali smiles to herself.


	6. Surprise

Ali walks down the hall to the gate room, picking up her pace when she hears the wormhole opening. She enters the room and sees Vala and Daniel arguing, as usual. Vala tried to steal an artifact from Daniel but he found it and put it in his pocket just as Ali walked in. She stands behind the Airman as Vala and Daniel say goodbye, waiting for her turn. 

After an awkward hug and Vala trying to steal the artifact one more time, Ali finally steps up to hug her friend. 

"Goodbye Vala, come back soon and I can tell you more stories," she says.

Vala laughs and whispers, "Tutu," in Ali's ear. They both burst out into laughter and Daniel stares at them, confused. When they stop laughing Vala says goodbye to the siblings once more and walks up the ramp to the gate. When she reaches the event horizon she turns around and looks at Daniel while she steps backwards through the gate. 

~~~~~

About an hour later Cam comes to find Ali in her quarters and tells her that Daniel suddenly passed out and is in the infirmary. They quickly make their way to the infirmary to sit with Daniel. 

Soon after, Vala comes back through the gate. She felt ill after about an hour as well. 

When Daniel wakes up, Lam, Cameron, and Ali are sitting by his bed. 

"What happened?" Daniel asks.

"We're not exactly sure, but Dr. Lam thinks it may have something to do with those alien cuffs," Ali says. Daniel sits up in his bed and looks around the room. 

"Why does one assume that?" he asks Dr. Lam. 

"Well you were completely unresponsive when we brought you in, but your condition suddenly improved when she came back," Lam replies. Daniel turns around to see Vala in the bed next to his. 

She sits up when he turns around and says, "Miss me?"   
~~~~~

Vala and Daniel are released from the infirmary and go to Dr. Lee's lab so he can run some tests. Ali goes to Daniel's office to work on a translation for another team. 

Ali has been working for about an hour when Daniel walks in and finds her there. She looks up when he comes to the door and says hi. 

"Hey, we have a briefing with Landry in five," he says when he enters the room. 

"Okay, where are we going?" she asks, putting away her translation. 

Daniel explains the situation while they walk to the briefing room together. Vala knows someone that could help them figure out what is going on. The team is going to travel to the planet where the person lives, pending approval from the General. 

They finish their briefing and recieve approval to go on the mission. Vala first gives them all different clothes so they will not stand out on this planet. 

They arrive on the planet and Vala takes them to the man's home. She stays outside while Ali, Cameron, and Daniel go inside to talk to the man. 

"Tell you what. These outfits make a bold statement. You don't reckon Landry is gonna make us work them into the rotation, do you?" Cam says jokingly while he and the Jackson siblings walk around what seems to be a science lab with lots of tubes, chemicals, and machines all around. 

"Let's see, desert camo, forest green, and undercover rawhide. It's got a nice ring to it," Daniel replies. Ali laughs and shakes her head. 

"I hate this outfit," she says, gesturing to her skin tight, black, leather outfit that showed off her breasts, almost the same as the one Vala arrived at the SGC in. 

"I dunno, I think it looks pretty good," Cam says with a wink. Ali smiles and rolls her eyes at him. Daniel raises an eyebrow at his sister and she waves his questioning look away. Cameron turns back to Daniel and picks up a brown bottle on the table next to him. "Well, this better be quick. Forty-five minutes away from your girlfriend, you're gonna turn into a pumpkin, and we're gonna have to haul your ass back there," he says. 

Ali clears her throat and leans her head to the side of the room while looking at the two boys, silently telling them to be quiet because she heard something. Daniel takes the bottle from Cameron's hand and puts it back on the table.

They all turn to look when a short, balding, old man enters from a separate room wearing long blue robes. 

"Hello, how can I help you?" he asks the three. 

"Well, we require your expertise," Daniel answers. 

"Expertise?" the man repeats as he sits in a chair behind his desk. 

"Well, you are the foremost expert on alien technology on this planet," Daniel says. The three of them step towards the desk. The man replies that he doesn't think that he is the foremost expert but he may be among the top five. Cameron shares a look with Ali and pulls the bracelets out of his pocket.

"Are you familiar with these?" he asks, placing them on the table. Daniel sits in one of the two chairs in front of the desk and Cam gestures for Ali to take the other. She smiles at him and sits down. Cameron leans on the back of her chair. 

Ali notices that the man's facial expression changed when Cam pulled out the bracelets. "Yes, yes," he says and looks up at Cameron, "I actually owned a pair myself up until not too long ago," 

"So, you know how they work?" Ali asks. The man looks at her and she sees his eyes travel down her body as far as he can see, since she is sittting, and go back up, stopping on her chest. She rolls her eyes and crosses her arms over her boobs. "Excuse me, those aren't my eyes," she says. The man clears his throat and shifts in his seat, bringing his eyes back up to hers. 

"Sorry, miss. Of course I know how they work," he says. "The bracelets create a physiological bond between the wearers. They were used by the Goa'uld," 

"Hve you ever heard of the physiological bond being sustained, say, after the bracelets were removed?" Daniel asks. 

"No, no. Barring some freak power surge in the bracelets themselves that might somehow transfer their effects outright, it's highly unlikely," the man answers.

"But in the unlikely event this did happen, would you be able to sever the connection?" Cam says. Ali hears a slight harshness in his voice and she wonders why. She brushes it aside for the moment when the man answers that he might be able to do this. Daniel asks for the man to tell them how. 

The man leans forward and puts his arms on the desk, Daniel does the same, pushing some bottles out of the way as he does. Ali keeps her arms crossed over her chest and leans forward slightly. "How is she?" the man asks. When Cam asks who, the man replies, "Vala," 

The three share a look and Ali answers, "We don't know any Vala," 

The man looks between them for a second and begins to move away from the desk, "Then I'm afraid I can't help you," he says. 

Before he can stand up, Cam stops him and tells him that they do know Vala. The man asks to see her and when they ask why, he says, "It's not what you think, I'm not after revenge. The truth is, the bracelets weren't the only thing she took from me. She also stole," he pauses and takes a breath, "My heart," he finishes sheepishly.

"Excuse me?" Cam says. Ali looks at Daniel who shares her confused expresssion. 

"I remember it as if it were yesterday. Some nights we would steal away from the city, strip off our clothing and bathe in the Springs of Aragatan," as the man talks and runs his hands along the table, Cameron moves next to Ali and looks at her in disbelief, "We would chase one another across the mossy hills and then lie naked under Adora's moons, and Vala would..." Cameron stops the man from continuing and Ali silently thanks him after seeing the direction in which the conversation was headed. 

"Okay, that's great. Thanks. We got the picture," Cam says. He leans down next to Ali's ear and whispers, "Very vivid, very disturbing picture," Ali bites her lip to contain her laughter. 

"Yes, those were wonderful, carnal times. But that's in the past. All I ask now is that I be given the chance to see her one last time. Bring me Vala, and I'll consider helping you," the man says. 

The three members of the team leave and go get Vala. They bring her back with them and wait for the man. He enters the room and Vala says his name, "Arlos?" She walks towards him and awkwardly hugs him. "I thought I'd never see you again," she says and Ali can almost hear the cringe in her voice.

"Hello, Vala," Arlos says with almost no emotion in his voice.

"They overpowered me. Some five, six mercenaries one morning, on my way to see you. And they demanded that I steal the bracelets under penalty of death," she says and Ali looks at Cameron who rolls his eyes.

"I don't care," Arlos replies and sits down behind his desk. 

"Arlos, are you going to have me killed?" Vala asks, squatting down next to his chair.

Arlos takes a breath and replies, "No. The memories of what we shared, and you so callously threw away, will undoubtedly haunt you until the day you die. That should be punishment enough," 

As Ali watches the two share another awkward hug she internally cringes. This was a very awkward relationship. She turns to Cam and moves up on her tiptoes so she can whisper in his ear. 

"I don't know who I feel worse for," she says and Cameron puts a hand over his mouth to cover his smile. She smiles too and turns back to the awkwardness in front of her. 

Arlos has just told Vala that he is over her and she stands up and begins to move towards her friends. When she does this, Arlos reaches out and grabs her arm, stopping her. Ali's hand moves towards her Zat gun and hovers near it, ready to grab it at the first sign of trouble. 

Arlos tells Vala that he wants his mother's necklace back and when Vala tells him that she can't get it back he says that their business is over and begins to walk out of the room. 

Cam steps forward, "Whoa, hang on, lover boy. We'll get your mama's necklace," 

"Then we have a deal," Arlos says. Vala turns around to look at Ali and sighs. 

The two girls leave Arlos' home together, with Cam and Daniel a fair distance in front of them. Ali begins to tell Vala about Arlos staring at her boobs and then Cam being angry with him. 

"Oooohhh! I knew you and Mitchell had a thing!" Vala says. Ali feels the blood rush to her face, making her cheeks a dark shade of red when Vala says this.

"No, we don't! I mean.. I kinda.. I just..." Ali fumbles over her words and Vala smiles widely at her.

"You do! It's okay, I won't tell a soul, you can tell me anything and it will always be safe," Vala says, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder. 

Ali takes a deep breath, "Okay, I mean I liked him when we were at basic training together but we were deployed to different places and I still thought about him but I kinda knew it would never work out cause of the military. But when we joined the 302 squad together all those feelings came back no matter how hard I tried fighting them. And now we're on a team together where we get to work more closely than we did in the 302's and we talk every day and I just can't hold it back anymore," Ali spills all of her feelings from the past 17 years of knowing Cameron Mitchell. All that time she felt that she couldn't tell anyone about her feelings for him. 

"Wow, you have got it bad," Vala says with a small smile. They soon reach the gate and dial the planet where Vala sold the necklace. 

~~

After traveling to 3 different planets and conning some smugglers, the team gets Arlos' mothers necklace and takes it back to him. When they return the necklace, Arlos tells the team that he can't find anything on breaking the link and that it will probably go away after some time. 

The team returns home and informs General Landry of their disappointing results. They then gather in the gate room to say goodbye to Teal’c. 

“Bye Teal’c, good luck on Dakara,” Ali says and the alien nods to her. Daniel and Teal’c share a hug and then the four watch as their tall friend walks up the ramp and through the gate.


	7. Memories

Ali sits on her bed with her knees pulled to her chest, staring at nothing and reliving the events of the past few days in her head. A chill runs down her spine as she sees the explosion again and she shudders. She is still having a hard time accepting what had happened…

*flashback*  
The team was playing a game of basketball. Vala, Teal’c, and Ali against Daniel, Cam, and Kevin. Teal’c picked Vala up and lifted her to the hoop so she could score for their team. 

The two girls laughed and high fived each other. Vala made fun of Cam, Daniel, and Kevin for letting a team with two aliens beat them. 

“I’m gonna kick your ass,” Daniel said to Vala as he took the ball. 

“Promises, promises,” Vala retorted. 

Daniel threw the ball to Cam and as he tried to run to the hoop to score, the General walked in and caught the ball that Cam had thrown backwards. The two Colonels and Major Barnes went to attention and the General let them at ease. 

“Actually, I was looking for Teal’c. We received a communique from a Goa’uld named Nerus. Ring any bells?” Landry asked as the team came to stand around him. 

“I am aware of his identity. He was a minor Goa’uld who served under Ba’al for many centuries,” Teal’c explains. Vala and Daniel join in to explain the Goa’uld and the General tells them that Nerus has offered to work for the SGC. 

“Nerus is not to be trusted,” Teal’c said. 

The General replied that Nerus had nice things to say about Teal’c and then he threw the basketball he was holding and it went in the hoop, then he walked away.  
~  
The team soon met Nerus and he told them about a growing force field on the surface of a planet called Kallana. The force field was made by the Ori and the gate had been open for over two days.  
~

“Sam!” Ali exclaimed when she saw the blonde haired Colonel walking into the room. A grin appeared on Sam’s face when she saw all of her friends standing in the room. Ali stepped forward to give her a quick hug and then let her reunite with Teal’c, Daniel, and Cam as well. After Sam is introduced to Vala, the whole team gears up and gets ready to leave. 

The team of six would be meeting up with the Prometheus at a planet near Kallana and then taking them the rest of the way there as they were unable to dial the gate to Kallana directly. 

They stood in front of the gate waiting to depart, Sam and the boys talked about how nice it was to have the “band back together” , as Cam put it. When Sam asked about why Vala was coming, they explained how they weren’t sure if the effects of the bracelets had worn off yet so she had to come. 

When Ali heard the way Daniel was talking about getting rid of Vala, she elbowed him in the side and gave him a look. As Vala was right behind them and could hear him, and she had become good friends with Ali, the Colonel didn’t want her friend’s feelings to be hurt. But it was to no avail as Vala had already heard the doctor’s harsh words.

“Wow, you’re just dying to get rid of me now, aren’t you?” she began from behind the group. Daniel made a smart reply about not ‘dying’ to get rid of her and she continued, “Oh, no, I know I’m not welcome here, despite all my efforts to try and fit in to your little stargating club. You can all rest assured that as soon as I can safely part Daniel’s company, without killing the both of us, I will.” 

Ali sighed and walked up onto the ramp past Vala and continued towards the gate. Vala threw her scarf over her shoulder and walked up the ramp next to Ali. They shared a look and then stepped through the gate together, followed by their other four teammates. 

Later, when the team was picked up by the Prometheus, Colonel Pendergast greeted them. He used Ali and Cam’s call signs when he welcomed them back to the Prometheus, Shaft and Mouse.  
 After he welcomed them, Pendergast engaged the hyperdrive and they were off to Kallana. 

When they arrived, they saw that the force field had expanded significantly. Teal’c, Cam, Daniel, and Vala suited up to go down to the planet, the air inside the force field had become toxic so they wore space suits. 

“Good luck V, and hey I’m sorry about Daniel this morning. And you are welcome here, I love having you around," Ali said. 

“It’s alright, thank you. And I really do appreciate that,” Vala replied. The girls hugged and then Ali walked over to Cameron and Daniel. 

“Be careful okay?” she said, they both nodded and Cam gave her a smile. She turned to Daniel, “And you,” she said, lowering her voice, “Be nice to her,” Daniel nodded and Ali smiled at the two before leaving to go to the bridge with Sam. 

As Sam and Ali waited on the bridge of the Prometheus, Goa’uld motherships suddenly came out of hyperspace around them and began firing on the force field. Pendergast attempted to contact them and stop them from firing on the force field surrounding their friends. Soon after, the vessels stopped firing and as they did, the force field entered an expansion phase. 

SG-1 was beamed back aboard the ship and as they were, one of the other ships contacted them. Gerak, the leader of the Jaffa, was aboard and he questioned why they had asked him to stop firing on the force field and ruined his plan. The team attempted convince Gerak that what they were doing was the smart way to handle the situation. 

A few seconds later, the bomb they left in the force field exploded and as it did, the field expanded, a lot. Gerak threatens that if the Prometheus does not join them in firing upon the force field, the Jaffa would fire upon them next. 

As they all fired on the force field, it began to grow faster and Sam noticed a correlation, that their weapons were powering the force field to grow more. Then, many large objects came from the gate and flew up into space. Two of Gerak’s ships were destroyed, the third and the Prometheus both were damaged. Gerak’s last ship left when they realized the planet was collapsing but the Prometheus stayed. 

The objects that came through the Stargate began to form a large circle. About 400 meters across, the circle was a Supergate. The force field around the planet was meant to create a black hole and with one on the other end, this ’Supergate’ could be kept open forever and could bring many Ori to the galaxy. 

As the team argued over what they could do to stop this, Lieutenant Marks told them that someone had activated the rings. It was then that they realized Vala had disappeared. 

“Hey, don’t leave without me,” Vala said over the radio. 

“Vala, where the hell are you?” Daniel replied. 

“I’m aboard the cloaked car ship that Gerak left behind to watch us,” she answered. Daniel asked how she found it. “Good guess,” she said. She explained that the rings sought out the nearest set which was aboard the cargo ship. 

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Trying to help, Daniel. Someone had to do something, and you wouldn’t listen. Actually, I got the idea from Colonel Carter. The objects are being held in some sort of energy field, like links in a chain, and I intend to take the place of the last link,” Vala explained.

“Vala, when that singularity forms, there will be a powerful shock wave. The cargo ship won’t survive,” Sam said. 

“I’m counting on it. I’ll ring back before it hits. Then you can all thank me immensely,” she replied. 

Ali, who was extremely worried about her friend, stood next to her brother and watched as the cargo ship’s cloak was turned off and it flew towards the Supergate. 

The ship entered the empty space and electricity began to flow around the gate. The planet exploded and the Supergate, along with the cargo ship, was destroyed in the shock wave. 

The crew cheered and Sam said, “She did it. The gate’s been destroyed,” 

“Did Vala make it onboard?” The Jackson siblings questioned at the same time.

“Negative,” Marks replied. Ali’s hand flew to her mouth and her knees grew weak. She grabbed onto Daniel’s arm but a second later he became weak as well. 

“Daniel?” she said, he slumped forward and Cam rushed to his other side to hold him up. Teal’c and Sam moved towards them too and Ali let Teal’c take Daniel’s other arm to help Cam take him to the infirmary. 

As the boys left the room, Sam put a hand on Ali’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry, I know you two were close,” she said. 

Ali nodded and thanked her. Sam quickly sent a message to the SGC and then her and Ali ran to the infirmary to be with Daniel.  
~

Ali sat by Daniel’s side and held his hand, even after she found out he was okay. He drifted in and out of sleep but she stayed by his side. 

Sam, Teal’c, and Cameron entered the room and Daniel woke up at the sound of his name. They talked to him and Sam said that he was lucky the bracelet’s effect was wearing off.

“Vala Mal Doran will be mourned,” Teal’c said. Although they were being nice, their words hurt Ali and she excused herself.

“Danny, I’m gonna go uh get a sandwich or something, I’ll be back soon,” she said, giving his hand a squeeze. Daniel nodded and Allison gave her teammates a small smile before exiting the room. 

She walked quickly down the halls of the ship until she arrived at her quarters, the same room she had when she was stationed on the Prometheus just about a year ago. She entered the room and leaned her back against the door, clutching at her chest and breathing heavily. Filled with anger and sadness over the death of a good friend, Ali put on a brave face in front of her friends but was broken on the inside. After she had gotten control of her breathing again, she sat down on the bed.

*flashback end*

She pulls her knees to her chest and shudders, thinking about the explosion and how her friend is now dead. 

There is a knock on the door and she breaks out of her thoughts to stand up and open the door. Cameron stands on the other side with two sandwiches in his hands and some water bottles tucked under his arm. He offers a sad smile and she moves aside so he can enter the room. 

He sets down the sandwiches and Ali closes the door again. When she turns around, Cameron stands with his arms open. She walks into his arms and accepts the much needed hug. They stand still for what seems like forever.

"Thank you," she whispers and as she looks into his eyes, she falls more in love with him. 

Their faces seem to be getting closer and closer and before either of them even know what is happening, they are kissing.


	8. After

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short lil filler kinda, BIGGGG chapter after this though :)

Ali and Cam kissed. Ali is still trying to process that fact. It was a short kiss, only a few seconds, but the way it made her feel… She had never felt this way before, her heart swelled and her brain failed to form thoughts. She was Allison Jackson, a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force, she didn’t get feelings like this. 

Cameron had pulled away, looked into her eyes for a second and then left the room. She stood there, shocked and lost for words. He hadn’t spoken to her much since and it’s been a week. 

The only thing worse than Cameron ignoring her, is the fact that she has no one to talk to about it. With Vala gone, she has no one like that. She could go to her brother, but that may be a little awkward. And she didn’t think Teal’c would have much advice. Sam, maybe, but she didn’t think they had that level of friendship yet. 

She sighs as she leaves her quarters, wearing her black uniform, with her hair in a ponytail. She pulls her hat on and pulls her ponytail through the back as she walks down the hall to the elevator. She pushes the button and when the elevator doors open, she steps inside. 

She pushes the button for the correct floor and about 4 floors before that, the elevator stops again to let someone else get on. When the doors slide open, Cameron stands on the other side. 

He looks up and sees her standing there and immediately looks away, “Uh, I’ll just get the next one,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck as he stares at the floor. 

Ali rolls her eyes and decides that she is, in fact, done with his shit. She steps forward and grabs him by his collar, pulling him into the elevator with her. The doors close and she crosses her arms as she stares at him. 

“What the hell is your problem Cameron? Are you so immature that you’re going to avoid me? We’re on the same team, you’re my best friend, I don’t want to lose you over this,” she begins angrily but by the end, her voice has lowered to a sad whisper. 

He sighs, “I don’t know. I don’t want to lose you either,” the elevator stops and the two get out and begin walking down the hall to the gate room together.

“So can we please talk about this more later, when we get back?” 

“Yeah, we can. I’m sorry,” he says.

She nods and they enter the gate room, both taking their weapons from the airmen and joining the other three members of their team at the bottom of the ramp. 

The team is going to a planet rumored to be the home of the Sodan warriors. As they are trekking through the quiet forest of the planet, Cameron talks about how he doesn’t believe that this information is reliable. He lags behind the others for a minute and as he stares at a branch that just moved, staff weapons begin firing. 

“Down!” Cam yells. They all fire back into the trees, even though they can not see anyone shooting at them. “Fall back to the gate. I’ve got our six. Go, go go!” 

The four team members fire into the woods as they run for the gate. Ali stays behind longer, waiting for Cam to come with her. 

“Ali, go!” he shouts. She reluctantly follows the other three back to the gate.

“Where the hell are they?” Cam mutters to himself as he turns around to follow his team. When Cameron turns around, a Jaffa stands behind him and hits him in the face with his staff weapon. Cameron attempts to shoot him but fails and is shot multiple times.

Sam calls for backup and then tries to radio Cam, who doesn’t answer as he is busy fighting a Jaffa. Cam runs to the staff weapon laying on the ground and fires it at the Jaffa, greatly wounding him. Cameron then collapses from being shot. 

More Jaffa find Cam and the Jaffa who attacked him lying on the ground. They leave their fellow Jaffa behind and take Cameron back to their camp. When the firing has stopped, SG-1 and 22 find the Jaffa laying on the ground, but no Cameron. 

They call in a medical team and more backup. A UAV is sent out to search for Cameron from the sky. Everyone is searching for the missing Colonel. 

“Damn it,” Ali says angrily. Daniel gives her a questioning look. “I wanted to stay with him but he told me to leave, I should have stayed with him,” 

“Al, this isn’t your fault. We’re gonna find him, I promise,” Daniel assures her. 

“I hope you’re right,” she replies.

Over the radio, Walter tells the team that there is something they need to see. They go where he tells them and find a stone arch covered in Ancient writing. 

Daniel and Ali translate it and find that it says it is some sort of gateway to enlightenment.   
 They search as long as they can but they find nothing and Daniel and Teal’c take the injured Jaffa home to be taken care of by Dr. Lam. Sam and Ali stay on the planet to try and figure out how to use the doorway and find Cam. 

After a while of gathering information on the arch, Sam and Ali head back to the SGC to study it more. Some teams stay behind to keep searching. 

After the Jaffa had healed he was moved to another room and interrogated frequently, begged for information about Cameron’s whereabouts. He spoke of how the Ori visited his world and how his people were choosing to follow them. 

Ali and Sam sat in Sam’s lab, going over data and some of the writing from the arch on the planet and suddenly an alarm goes off.

“Unscheduled off world activation,” Walter says over the speaker. 

Sam and Ali share a look and run to the gate room. When they arrive, they see Daniel and Landry already standing behind Walter. 

“What’s going on?” Ali asks breathlessly. 

“We’re receiving Colonel Mitchell’s IDC,”

“Oh my god,” Sam exclaims. 

The teammates rush down to the gate room as Cam walks through the gate. 

“Cam!” Ali yells, throwing her arms around his neck.

He chuckles softly and says, “Miss me?” 

She laughs and nods as she pulls away and lets the other’s greet him as well.   
~~

They send the Jaffa back to his planet and later Ali knocks on the door to Cameron’s quarters. He opens it and smiles when he sees her. She enters his room and lies down on his bed without saying a word. 

He lets out a small laugh and lies down next to her. 

“So tell me what happened,” she says. 

He explains everything, from being trained to fight and then fighting the same man who trained him, and then being fake dead. 

They lay like that and talk for a while, avoiding the subject of their kiss entirely. 

“You know,” Ali says as she stands up to go back to her room, “I really was worried about you,” and with a smile, she leaves the room.


	9. Protectorate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNINGS: (kind of major) character death (semi- graphic?), plane crash/explosion, fighting, minor swearing

*about a month later*

Daniel enters the control room, “What’s up?” he says to Cam and Walter. 

“Incoming wormhole from Tegalus,” Walter replies.

“A Jarrod Kane is requesting to be let through. Says he needs to speak to you and it’s urgent,” Cam adds.

Walter turns on the radio and Daniel says, “Jarrod, this is Daniel. What’s wrong?” 

Kane tells Daniel that he has gained access to the Stargate without his government’s permission. He asks to come through. 

Cameron and Daniel share a look and Daniel gives a nod to allow Walter to open the iris. They tell him it is safe to come through and walk down to the gate room to greet him. 

“Dr. Jackson,” the man says when he walks out onto the ramp. Daniel introduces Cameron.

“Your government stopped responding to our communiques months ago. We assumed that you…” Daniel says.

As Daniel trails off at the end of his sentence, Kane interjects, “Completely destroyed each other? Not quite yet,” Daniel asks him about his urgency and he says that a man came through the Stargate a few months ago. “He called himself a Prior of the Ori,”

“Here we go,” Cam says. 

“The Prior wasn’t just offering us religion. He offered us power. In exchange for our embracing the Ori, he gave our government designs for a weapon that could be launched into orbit. A satellite capable of giving us total domination over the Caledonians,” 

Daniel asks how long it will be before the weapon is completed.

Kane replies, “Twenty-four hours ago, a Caledonian military outpost was completely vaporized in a demonstration. The weapon is already operational,”   
~~  
The rest of the team is called to the briefing room and they tell Jarrod about the horror that the Prior’s bring and he tells them about what had been happening on Tegalus. The Caledonians were preparing for a full blown ground assault. The Protectorate was going to be wiped out completely before the Prior came. 

He gives the team the early schematics for the weapon. “Unfortunately, they are incomplete. The Prior gave us step-by-step instructions in stages. It’s the best I could do under the circumstances,”

“You wish us to destroy the weapon?” Teal’c asks. 

“It’s the only chance we have to stop things before they go too far,” Kane replies. When Ali asks if Kane hates the Caledonians for bombing his country, he replies, “I do, but I refuse to see any more lives, be they Rand or Caledonian, senselessly lost, due to archaic prejudices or religious extremism. This has to stop,”

“Would you excuse us for a moment?” Cam asks. The five team members stand up and walk into Landry’s office to talk privately. 

They discuss what they should do about this situation. 

Daniel brings up the fact that there wouldn’t have been a war on this planet if they hadn’t gone there. 

They talk about how they offered to help the Rand rebuild but they declined because they were being influenced by the Prior. 

“This satellite thing is taking it to a whole new level,” Ali says, “I mean, if they’re arming their followers like this, who says they won’t ask them to build ships for their armies?” 

“So, what, we just fly in there and blow it up?” Daniel asks.

“Yeah,” Ali and Cam reply in unison. They smile at each other before returning to their conversation. “Unless you have a better idea,” Cam adds. 

Daniel says that both of the countries deserve to know the truth and he wants to go in and tell them who the Ori really are, in the hopes that they will dismantle the weapon on their own.   
~~  
The plan is to go to Tegalus on the Prometheus, let Daniel go first through the gate to talk to them, and if that doesn’t work, they blow it up. 

Daniel and Kane go through the gate to talk to the Rand government. The rest of the team prepares to travel there on the Prometheus.   
~~  
On the Prometheus, Teal’c, Cam, Ali, and Barnes are wearing their flight suits, prepared to jump into the F-302’s if necessary. 

The five are standing on the bridge of the ship when Captain Marks says that they are approaching the planet. 

“Prepare to lock on to Dr. Jackson’s locator beacon the moment we drop out of hyperspace,” Colonel Pendergast says. 

When they drop out of hyperspace, Lieutenant Womack says that she has a lock on Daniel and Pendergast tells her to beam him to the bridge. 

There is a flash of light and when it is gone, Ali expects to see her brother but instead all she sees is his locator bracelet. 

“Well, guess his plan isn’t working out,” Ali says. “We haven’t heard from him since he left, two days ago,” 

“We have located the satellite,” Marks says. 

“Lock on target,” Pendergast says.

The team discusses their options, weighing the possibility of negotiating for Daniel. 

“Daniel would want us to proceed with the plan, we’ll get him out, but if we don’t destroy this thing now, we may lose our chance,” Ali says. 

“Well, it’s your call Colonels. All I’m asking is that you make up your mind quickly,” Colonel Pendergast says. 

The Lieutenant then tells them that they are detecting a power buildup from the satellite. 

The four team members exchange looks as the Colonel prepares the ship, putting shields at full power and sounding general quarters when the satellite targets them. 

“Do it,” Ali says. 

“Firing missiles,” the Lieutenant says. The missiles leave the ship and head towards the satellite. “Missiles detonated prior to impact, target remains intact, sir,” 

“Looks like it’s being protected by a shield. Defensive capabilities must have been added,”

As the team contemplates their next move, the weapon suddenly fires at them. The beam goes straight through not only the shield, but the entire ship. Sparks fly in the bridge and Ali is thrown off balance by the impact, she hits the floor. 

“Al, you okay?” Cameron asks as he kneels down in front of her, with a worried expression. 

She nods and accepts his hand to pull her up. 

Colonel Pendergast orders evasive maneuvers and the damaged levels to be sealed off.

“Sensors detect that the weapon is recharging!” Womack yells. “Hyperdrive is offline,”

Ali stands next to Barnes, looking over Captain Marks’ shoulder at the screen. People all around them are yelling and Marks is receiving many reports of damage.

“That thing can only fire at one target at a time,” Cam says to Pendergast. 

“Go, scramble Blue Squadron,” he orders. 

Ali, Kevin, Cameron, and Teal’c run to the F-302 bay. When they arrive, Teal’c and Cameron climb into their fighter, while Ali and Kevin get in theirs.

“Mouse and Stallion, back at it again,” Barnes says as they climb in their ship. 

The squadron makes their way to the satellite and fire their missiles at it. 

They continue to make runs at the weapon but it has no effect. The shield is not weakening. 

“Oh, shit,” Ali says as she flies her ship out of the way of another shot from the weapon. Again, the beam heads straight for the ship and cuts through the entire thing, shields and all. 

“I don’t think they can take another hit like that,” Ali says to Barnes. 

Cameron radios the Prometheus to ask for orders. Pendergast tells him that the docking bays are too unstable and to stand by. “Roger that,” Cam says. 

A few minutes later, Cam says, “Blue Squadron, this is Blue Leader. Break off the attack, and scramble formation between the Prometheus and the weapon,” over the radio, and then to Teal’c, “Maybe one of us will get lucky and take a portion of the next shot,” 

“I would not consider that lucky, Colonel Mitchell,” Teal’c replies. 

“Well, it could be for anybody aboard Prometheus,” 

After a few more minutes of the F-302’s simply waiting in between the weapon and their ship, they hear Pendergast speak over the radio. 

“This is the Prometheus to all F-302’s. We have begun our evacuation. I advise you get clear of the ship and meet us at the rendezvous coordinates on the planet,” 

“Affirmative, Prometheus,” Cameron replies. The 302’s begin to depart the area surrounding the ship. 

“There has to be something more we can do,” Barnes says to Ali. 

“I don’t think there is Kev,” she replies. 

As they are beginning to fly away, the weapon fires again. Ali, Kevin, and the rest of the 302 pilots, watch as their ship explodes. Ali takes a sharp breath as she flies away from the explosion and stops at a safe distance from it. They watch for a few moments and regain their composure. 

“Let’s just hope everyone got out okay,” Ali says. Kevin agrees with her and they continue their descent to the planet. 

Suddenly, a missile blows a hole through the right wing of the ship and they begin to lose control of the craft.

“What the hell was that?” Ali yells. 

Before she can even finish her question, they are hit again. This time, it’s the left wing. Sparks fly within the cockpit and the two copilots begin to lose systems.

“We’re going down!” Ali yells.

Their ship is plummeting to the planet, spiraling due to the loss of part of each wing. Ali grips the control so tightly she feels as though it may break. 

“Get ready to eject!” Kevin shouts. They both hover their hands over the eject levers. As the wildly spinning ship gets closer and closer to the ground, Kevin screams, “Now!” 

They both yank on their eject levers and Ali flies up and out of the ship, her parachute deploying immediately. 

She looks to her left and sees Kevin floating next to her. She breaths a sigh of relief, since they are both safe and they watch as their fighter crashes into the ground and explodes.

Soon, their feet touch the ground and they quickly unbuckle from their seats. Kevin and Ali stand next to the wreckage of their ship and watch as it burns. 

“What the hell hit us?” Kevin asks. 

Before Ali can respond, she hears a whistle from behind them. She shares a look with her friend and they stand still, listening to the voice behind them. 

“Look what we caught ourselves, boys. Some little Earthlings,” the voice says. Ali’s eyes rake over the wreckage, looking for something to use as a weapon. The voice is getting closer as he makes comments about her attractiveness “even from behind”. She and Kevin turn around to see the approaching group of about five men. They all hold weapons and one looks like a missile launcher, which would account for the holes in the wings of her fighter. 

“Welcome to the Rand Protectorate,” one of the men says. 

“You shot us down,” she replies. 

“Pretty AND smart, she’s a catch fellas,” another one says. 

“Not that you’ll be catching anything,” she says with a short laugh.

The man that said that adjusts his ill fitting shirt on his large frame and rolls his eyes. 

“Ali, let’s go,” Kevin whispers. She gives a small nod and turns around to walk away. 

“Don’t you walk away from us,” one of the men says. 

As the Colonel turns around to give them a piece of her mind, she sees one raising his weapon and aiming it at them. She watches the bullet leave the barrel of the gun and Kevin turn around to look at her as she screams “MOVE!”. But it was too late. 

Kevin’s body tumbles to the ground and she runs to his side and picks up his hand, “Kevin! Stay with me, okay? Just hold on,” she says. 

“Ali,” he struggles to speak as blood fills his mouth. “I love.. you.. You’re my.. best friend,” 

“No, no, no, no,” Ali says. She can do nothing but watch as her best friend dies. 

His sparkling, green eyes fight to stay open and he looks into her eyes as he lets out his final breath.

She slowly reaches her hand up to his face and uses two fingers to close his eyes. She looks away and takes a deep breath. Ali decides that she can mourn him later and pulls his dog tags off of his neck, and puts them on her self, tucking them under her shirt. 

She stands up slowly and turns to the group of men who are laughing as they watch Kevin die. She begins to walk towards them slowly and they continue to laugh. When she reaches them she stares at the one that shot Barnes and as he opens his mouth, probably to make a smart comment, she raises her fist and punches him with so much force that he stumbles back and blood pools in his mouth. The other four men look shocked and she takes their surprise and uses it to her advantage. She punches another man and swings her leg around to kick a third. 

The fourth charges at her and she dodges his punch and knocks his gun out of his hands with a kick. She catches the weapon and points it at the last standing man. He raises his hands in surrender and she lowers the weapon. 

Suddenly, Ali feels a pain in her right leg and looks down to realize that a bullet just went through her calf from behind. One of these assholes shot her. She collapses in pain and blood runs down her leg from the wound. 

One of the men standing behind her says, “Good night, sweetheart,” and then everything goes black.


	10. Tears

Cameron and Teal’c fly into the planet’s atmosphere and land safely in Caledonia. They meet with the Caledonian Minister and she takes them to their control center. The Minister tells Cameron that only 76 out of 115 of their people have been recovered from the Prometheus. 

“Teal’c, Cameron,” Sam says as she walks into the room. 

“Sam, you’re a sight for sore eyes,” Cam says as he walks up and hugs her. Teal’c holds Sam by the arms and looks into her eyes.

“It is good to see you alive, Colonel Carter. We feared the worst,” Teal’c says with sincerity. 

“Where’s Pendergast?” Cameron asks. Sam shakes her head.

“He wasn’t with us,” she replies and the three share solemn looks. “Wait, where are Ali and Barnes?” 

“They should be here soon,” Teal’c replies. 

“I hope,” Cameron thinks. The Minister interrupts them to say that no more survivors were found where they had appeared. 

~~~

When Allison opens her eyes, she is being carried by one of the men she fought with earlier. Now, however, there are only two men instead of five. She easily fights them off and takes one of their weapons to defend herself with. She uses the strap from one of their guns to bind their hands together tightly. 

After taking care of her captors, she sits down on the dusty ground and rips a piece of fabric from the army green t-shirt she wore under her 302 uniform to tie around her bloody leg. The bleeding stopped earlier but she is going to be walking and doesn’t want to take a chance at it starting up again. She ties the laces on her boots tightly and stands up with the gun in her hands. 

She takes a look at her surroundings. The dirt shows tracks from the two men and she decides to follow those, assuming that they lead back to her ship and in the direction of Caledonia. She begins her walk to Caledonia with a limp in her right leg. She wonders what happened to the other three and hopes that she won’t run into them on her way to Caledonia. 

~~~

While Ali treks through the outskirts of Caledonia, in the capital, her friends plan an attack. Since the satellite’s shield is generated in the Rand’s control center, Sam comes up with the idea to attach an inertial dampener from a 302 to a missile which will generate an EM pulse. The pulse will disable the Rand’s electronics, including the ability to put the shield up on the satellite, and give them the opportunity to destroy the defenseless satellite. 

“Shouldn’t Ali and Barnes be here by now?” Sam asks after a few hours of being in Caledonia. 

“Something is wrong,” Cam replies. Sam can hear the fear in his voice, which is rare for Cameron. He usually keeps his emotions out of things. 

“Cameron, I’m sure they’re both fine. Maybe they just landed farther out or something,” she says reassuringly.

Cameron raises an eyebrow skeptically and replies, “Sam, you know as well as I do that that’s not true and something is wrong,” 

Sam sighs, “Hope for the best,”

“And prepare for the worst,” he says under his breath. 

~~~

Come on Ali, you made it through army basic training, and 3 tours in Iraq. You can do this, you can make it to the capital. Do it for Cameron. Do it for Daniel. Do it for Sam and Teal’c. Do it for Kevin. These are Ali’s thoughts as she trudges through the desert-like terrain outside of Caledonia’s capital. She passed the wreckage of her ship about two hours ago. She attempts to stop walking as little as possible, but with the pain in her leg, she frequently takes breaks. 

She can see the city in the distance and fights to keep walking. Between her many injuries and the heat around her, she finds it hard to continue. But then she remembers Kevin and that gives her the motivation to keep going. 

~~~

The rest of the team begins to put their plan into action. Cameron and Teal’c get in their 302 and fly up to the satellite while the missile that will create the EM pulse is launched. Ali walks into the city just as the plan begins to unfold. She sees what looks like a military officer standing on the street and walks over to him. 

“Hi, I’m from Earth, my ship crashed and I had to walk here. Do you know where my people are?” She asks, breathless from her journey to the city. He gives her water from a canteen and she gladly accepts it. The officer then guides her to the building where her friends can be found. 

The man brings her all the way into the building and up to the control room. She thanks him and opens the door. Inside, many Caledonians in military uniforms sit or stand around the room doing various things. A screen shows a map and in front of the screen a woman Ali doesn’t know stands beside her friend Sam. 

“Sam,” Ali says in a hoarse voice. Sam quickly turns around and smiles at the sight of her brunette friend. They walk towards each other and embrace. 

“Ali, it’s so good to see you! Cameron will be so happy, he was really worried. We all were,” Sam says after their hug. “Where is Barnes?”

Ali simply shakes her head in response to Sam’s question. Sam frowns. “I’m sorry to hear that,” she says. 

“I’m sorry too. Where are the others?” Ali replies. Sam begins to guide her friend to the infirmary on the next floor of the building to take care of her injuries. Her arm is around Sam’s shoulders and Sam is supporting her weight, helping to take some off of her injured leg.

“Well, a lot of them are probably still in the infirmary, the others are around the building somewhere. 76 were recovered. Cameron and Teal’c just left to fly a 302 up to destroy the satellite,” Sam explains the whole plan, with the missile being sent out to create an EM pulse and disable the satellite’s shield so that Cameron and Teal’c can destroy it. 

They arrive in the infirmary and Ali sees many familiar faces around the room. Captain Marks walks up and takes Ali’s other arm to help lift her into an empty bed. 

“Marks, good to see you. Where’s Pendergast?” Ali says, looking around the room for the Colonel. Sam and Marks share a look and Ali frowns when she can’t see him anywhere. She turns to look at Sam and the Colonel explains what happened to Pendergast. Ali is heartbroken, she had worked with Colonel Pendergast for some time and he was not only a good person, but a good friend. 

“I’m sorry Ali, but I have to get back up to the control room to help. We have to launch the missile soon. I’ll come back later. Marks, make sure they take good care of her,” the blonde colonel smiles and leaves the room, running back up to the control room. 

The Caledonian doctors stitch up two cuts on Ali’s face that she got in her fights with the Rand men and they fix up the bullet hole in her leg. She cleans the dirt off of her face with a wet towel. There are a few bruises scattered around her body from fighting and one from the seatbelt on the 302 that pushed against her chest when she ejected. Her injuries are minor, the bullet went straight through her leg and missed her bone. Still hurt like hell though, especially walking on it for that long. 

They give her food and water and soon she is feeling better. She is given a crutch, similar to ones on Earth, to help her walk and released from the infirmary. Ali leaves the infirmary and heads up to the control room to help Sam. She spent about an hour in the infirmary and when she walks in to the control room she hears her brother’s voice. Her eyes widen and she walks over to stand next to Sam who turns to look at her. 

“Good, you’re here,” Sam whispers and explains the situation. They launched the missile about 10 minutes ago and were contacted by the Rand president and managed to stall him. Then, the missile detonated and as Cam and Teal’c were about to destroy it, Daniel contacted them and is currently trying to negotiate a surrender. 

“May I?” Sam asks the woman in the suit standing beside her, referring to the radio where Cameron and Daniel are talking. 

“Please,” the woman replies. 

Sam picks up the radio and speaks into it, “Daniel, this is Sam,” she says.

“Hey Sam, good to hear your voice,” he replies. 

“Yours too. I’m here with Minister Chaska of the Caledonian Federation.” Ali looks at the woman standing on the other side of Carter and decides that she must be Minister Chaska, they were not introduced yet. “We’d like to know what Rand is offering,” Sam says. 

“In exchange for leaving the satellite intact, Rand is offering Caledonia the Stargate. Rand is offering the gate and a limited cease-fire, so all those from Caledonia who do not want to follow Origin and wish to seek refuge on another planet may do so.” Daniel explains. 

The atmosphere of the room immediately changes. Everyone seems shocked by this offer, the two Colonels included. “They want us to leave our home, our planet.” Chaska says with disbelief. 

“Jackson, are you sure about this? I got a clean shot at this thing, and I am in favor of taking it.” Cameron says. 

Daniel tells them that the Rand’s resolve is steady and that if they destroyed this satellite, they would build another. “And as far as the Caledonians go, well, Sam you’re just gonna have to explain to them that the Priors may not give them much choice, regardless of what Rand decides to do.” 

Ali sighs, as much as she hates to admit it, Daniel is probably right. Caledonia will be wiped out if they don’t follow Origin. 

“We’ve seen the Priors wipe out entire planets for refusing to follow the Ori.” Sam says and Ali nods solemnly. 

“You will not fight them with us?” The Minister asks. 

“We would try, but honestly there’s only so much that we could do,” Sam says.

“Will the Prior not follow us wherever we go?” Chaska asks. 

“Maybe, but for now..” Sam starts and is interrupted by Daniel. 

“Look, this offer’s not gonna be on the table long, and I realize there’s a lot to be worked out, but at least it’s a start.” He says. 

Sam continues to try and convince the Minister to take the deal. 

The Minister turns her back and slowly walks away from the two Colonels, when she turns around she says, “Tell Colonel Mitchell to call it off,” Sam does so. 

Not even a minute after calling off the attack, Cameron’s voice comes over the radio. “Jackson, what’s going on down there? The satellite is powering up its weapon and targeting the planet.” He says. 

Ali’s eyes widen and she looks at Sam, “We had a deal!” she says angrily. 

Minister Chaska steps forward and grabs the radio, “President Nadal, explain your actions immediately,” She repeats his name and still receives no response from the Rand president.

Minutes pass of the entire Caledonian control room sitting in silence, waiting for either a response, or their deaths. 

“Sam, Nadal is dead. The satellite is being shut down.” Daniel says after a few minutes. Everyone in the room breathes a sigh of relief. 

“Alright, good job Jackson,” Cameron replies. 

Soon, Cameron and Teal’c land on Caledonian territory and make their way to the control room. They enter and see Sam standing next to a familiar brunette wearing a 302 jumpsuit and holding a crutch. 

“Ali!” Cameron shouts. She turns her head quickly with a smile on her face. A matching smile breaks out on his face and Cameron rushes forward to give her a long awaited hug. Her crutch falls to the ground as she wraps her arms around Cameron. “I was so worried,” he whispers in her ear, his voice muffled by her hair. “What the hell happened to you?” He asks, examining her injuries when they pull away. His hands remain on her shoulders, holding her at arms length. Sam bends down to pick up Ali’s crutch and holds it for her as she greets Cameron. 

She smiles up at him, “Long story,” he nods, knowing that she’ll explain it all later. He smiles down at her again and Sam hands Ali her crutch before Cameron releases her and lets her greet Teal’c. 

The four teammates are soon reunited with Daniel and he shares a hug with his sister. 

“You look like you’ve been through hell, Al.” Daniel says, looking over his sister’s injuries. 

“I could say the same about you. I’m glad you’re okay Danny.” she says with a sincere smile. 

~~

The team walks through the gate, along with the other 76 crew members, and the 302’s follow. 

They meet with General Landry for a debriefing where Ali finally tells her teammates what happened to Major Barnes. She retells the entire story from being shot down to walking all the way to the capital alone. The team and Landry listen in awe. When she finishes the story, she pulls Kevin’s dog tags off of her neck and places them on the table in front of her. 

“Sir, would you mind if I was the one to notify his family?” She asks the General after their briefing, holding his tags in her hand. 

“If you want to, of course,” Landry says with a small smile. 

“Thank you, sir,” she replies. 

“I’m glad you’re okay, Jackson,” General Landry says. 

~~

Ali pauses with her hand hovering next to the door, about to knock. She takes a deep breath and prepares for what will happen next. She is wearing her dress blues with her hair pulled back in a tight bun. In her other hand, she holds Kevin’s dog tags and a letter from the Air Force.

She knocks on the door and soon a petite blonde woman answers. 

“Allison! So good to see you, dear! Where’s my Kevin?” Carol asks, moving aside to let her in and looking around for her son. Ali met Kevin’s family a few times in the past and knew them quite well. Carol’s eyes are so filled with joy as she awaits an answer.

“Mrs. Barnes, I am so sorry,”

Carol’s face immediately falls and the joy in her eyes disappears. “No! No, no, no!” She yells out as tears begin to roll freely down her cheeks. Her husband, Brandon, walks down the stairs. When he sees his crying wife next to Ali in her dress blues, he knows. Brandon walks up to Carol and pulls her into his arms. She sobs into his chest and the three stand in the entrance of the Barnes home. 

Eventually, they move to the couch to sit and talk. Ali gives them the basic non-classified details about the death of their only son. We were flying and our plane was shot down by a hostile, we ejected and landed safely but Kevin was shot by one of the hostiles. She hands them his tags. 

Carol takes one look at the metal tags in her hand and starts crying uncontrollably again. Her husband comforts her but it doesn’t help. 

Ali’s attempts at remaining strong fail miserably and she begins to sob along with Mrs. Barnes, repeating over and over how sorry she is. Soon she feels someone wrap their arms around her and she opens her eyes to see Carol holding her. She hugs her back and they sit, crying and holding onto each other.


	11. Normalcy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So it's been forever since I posted, but I finally got a way to watch Stargate again, they took it off the site I was watching on so yay I can write again! Short chapter, but it's something lol

*bold=when they speak Mandarin*

The return to normalcy following the loss of the Prometheus and many of her crew, including Allison’s co-pilot and close friend, was slow. It was taking Allison some time to adjust to the loss of so many good friends, people she had fought side by side with for years when serving on the Prometheus. However, it would have been a lot harder without Cam, Daniel, Sam, and Teal’c by her side every day. 

The team took a few weeks off before getting back to business as usual but during those weeks off, much of their time was spent together. They played poker, drank, and helped to get Ali back to normal. After those weeks, she returned to her normal and happy self and they began going on missions again. 

~~~  
“All right, let's move out. These Ancient ruins aren't going to explore themselves.” Cam says. 

As the five members of Ali’s team climb the ramp to the gate, they hear General Landry over the microphone telling them to stop. 

“You’re needed elsewhere.” Landry says, informing the team that their mission is canceled. The five follow Landry up to the briefing room and Daniel asks what is going on.

“A team of representatives from the International Oversight Advisory are going on a tour of the Gamma site. Pentagon wants SG-1 to accompany them as their official escort.” Landry explains. 

The teams faces convey their confusion, or in Ali’s case distaste, at this new assignment.

“That is a most unusual request.” Teal’c says. 

“It will be I.O.A.'s first time off-world, the President wants to make sure it goes off without a hitch. He figured: who better to ensure that than our top team?” Landry responds. 

“Sir, I don't mean to gripe …” Cam says.

“Permission to gripe granted,” the General says.

“We’re being put on babysitting duty?”

“Don't underestimate the importance of this mission. This is the I.O.A.! These people carry a lot of influence with the Stargate program, how it's run, how it's funded. You should feel honored!” Landry pauses, looking at the team’s unamused faces, “Just don't keep them up past ten and remember to read them a bedtime story before tucking them in for the night.” 

Ali snorts at this and Landry gives a small smile to her before leaving the team alone in the briefing room. 

“Wow, babysitting, haven’t done that since Ali was thirteen.” Daniel says with a short laugh. Ali turns to face her brother with a smirk.

“Yeah, you were always a pain to babysit, Danny.” she responds and the team laughs before leaving the room. Daniel stands with his mouth open.

“Hey, I’m five years older than you!” he yells after his sister.

“Yes, but which one of us liked wearing tutus and having tea parties?”

“That was one time Ali!”  
~~~  
The team is grabbing their weapons from the airmen in the gate room when the IOA representatives enter the room. 

“Here we go.” Ali mutters to Cameron who rolls his eyes at the prospect of dealing with these people on another planet.

The three delegates stand between the team and the gate and look at it in awe. And then Mr. Richard Woolsey enters. Woolsey is an annoying man, and Ali does not like him very much because of this. He begins to introduce the team to the delegates.

“Chapman, Mr. LaPierre, Ms. Shen. I'd like you to meet our escort to the Gamma Site, SG-1. Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell, Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter, Lieutenant Colonel Allison Jackson, Teal’c..” the members nod as their names are said. Before Woolsey can introduce Daniel however, Ms. Shen interrupts him. 

“And Doctor Daniel Jackson. PhD in archaeology, anthropology and philology, the man who solved the riddle of the Stargate.”

“Shen Xiaoyi, directed at Beijing Foreign Studies university and the London School of Economics and Political Science. Former attaché to the Chinese mission in the United States.” Daniel says and they nod to each other. 

The two then begin to speak to each other in Mandarin. The other delegates, along with Woolsey, Landry, Sam, and Teal’c do not understand their words. Ali and Cam however, took a Mandarin class at the Academy together. They stayed up late helping each other study frequently. Ali knows many languages but Mandarin is one of the ones that she shares with Cameron. 

“ **How's your Mandarin?** ” Shen asks

“ **Not as good as your English.** ” Daniel responds.

“ **It shows. ******” the woman glances at Cam and asks Daniel, “ **You're bringing him along? ******”

“ **We have to baby-sit him. ******”

She laughs at Daniel’s response and Daniel smiles widely, thinking that he is not understood by anyone but Shen. 

“Yeah, that's very funny.” Cam says and Ali smirks, knowing he’s about to let them know he knows Mandarin. “ **Screw you! ******” he finishes in Mandarin, making everyone else in the room do a double take, surprised that he speaks the language.

“ **I second that.** ” Ali adds, shooting a glare at the dark haired woman in front of her. 

They are then notified by Walter that the seventh chevron is locked, and then the gate kawooshes and the IOA members look on in awe at the mesmerizing device. Sam steps onto the ramp and explains the process of gate travel, the short and sweet version, and then everyone begins to step through the gate. 

~~~ 

After arriving on the planet, Ali heads off with Daniel, Teal’c, and Cam, leaving Carter with the tour group. 

“Seriously, what are we doing here?” Cam asks, as they walk down a hallway of the base. 

“Honest answer? P.R. for the Stargate program” Daniel responds. 

“I'm telling you, today it's escorting foreign delegates on off-world tours, tomorrow it's calling at conventions and supermarket openings.” Cam answers.  

The two begin arguing over why they are needed to escort the IOA while Teal’c and Ali walk silently behind them. 

“We should’ve stayed with the tour.” Ali whispers to the tall alien beside her, who shares a look and nod of agreement with her. 

~~~ 

Daniel, Teal’c, and Ali are left with the delegates while Carter and Cameron are in the gate room. One of the scientists at the Gamma Site collapsed after being bitten by an alien bug and he is being sent back to Earth. The delegates were also meant to go back now but the base is on lockdown. 

As the three members of SG-1 escort the delegates to the gate room, an alarm suddenly sounds and Cam, Carter, and Woolsey appear at the end of the corridor. Ali can hear gun shots from the gate room. 

Ali frowns as they walk towards her and Cameron says, “Back in the elevator, we're going upstairs. We have a bit of a bug problem.” He places a hand on Ali’s shoulder and guides her down the hall to the elevator with the rest of the team and the IOA delegates. 

“Bug problem?” she inquires. 

“Specifically carnivorous bug problem,” he answers and her eyes widen. 

“Shit.”


	12. Disorder

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry I've been gone for so long but here is a long ass chapter to make up for it.

“So what the hell happened in there?” Ali quietly asks Cameron as they stand in the corner of the Gamma site’s briefing room.

“They were gonna take Dr. Myers back to Earth but the bugs just started coming out of him and I pulled Carter and Woolsey out of there before we got eaten.” 

“Carnivorous alien insects…. Ya know, those ancient ruins we were gonna explore sound really nice compared to this.” Ali scoffs and Cameron nods his head to agree with her. 

“Well, I think we're past the point of coincidence; it's no question that these bugs were the Priors' follow up to the virus.” Daniel says. The bugs were suspected to be a tool of the Ori but it had yet to be determined, which is why Myers was studying them.

“And it appears that they were designed to circumvent any attempt to forestall their destructive nature.” Teal’c adds.

“Deny them crops and their physiology adapts to an alternate food source.” Carter says.

“Yeah, us.” Ali replies with a humorless laugh. 

Cameron pushes the button on his radio and attempts to contact Colonel Pearson, the leader of the Gamma site, who was left in the gate room earlier. There is no response and then, the lights begin to flicker. Woolsey attempts to reassure the delegates, saying that nothing is wrong. But then, the lights go out. Dim backup lights come on as Cameron throws open the door to the hall. 

Colonel Pearson and an S.F. then enter the room. “Colonel. What's the situation?” Cameron asks.

“Not good. There are thousands of those things in the pod. They killed one of my men before we retreated.” he grimly responds. 

“We lost the gate room?” Ali asks, disbelief in her tone.

“We need to take it back,” Pearson confirms. “Mr. Woolsey, my men will escort you and your people to the surface. Get you to a safe location. Get you as far away from here as possible until this situation is contained.” Pearson turns to leave the room and Ali’s team moves to follow but their actions are halted by Mr. Woolsey.

“I don’t think so.” Woolsey says and everyone turns to look at him.

“Excuse me?” Pearson asks incredulously.

“SG-1 will escort us out. They’re here to ensure the safety of this delegation.” 

“You know that none of us can go home until we get the gate back, right?” Ali says, furrowing her brows at the man. 

“And I'm sure Colonel Pearson and his people will do everything to ensure that happens. In the meantime, you will take us to the surface. You will protect us, as per your orders from the Pentagon.”

The team and Colonel Pearson share annoyed looks with each other and Pearson tells them to get the delegates out. 

Cam and Ali watch Woolsey with annoyed and disgusted expressions as he ushers the delegates out of the room along with the other team members. 

“Let’s go protect the delegation, sweetheart.” Cam says sarcastically, placing a hand on Ali’s back and guiding her from the room as she gives a short and unamused laugh. 

The walk is spent listening to Mr. Woolsey and the delegates complain about walking and how badly they are being treated. Ali’s eyes begin to hurt because of how many times she has rolled them. 

Woolsey asks Airman Walker if they could have taken a jeep. Walker tells him that the research station the group is heading to is ten clicks away through dense forest, which a jeep could not go through. 

“Then I have to ask if this is really necessary. I mean, couldn't we just wait here until Colonel Pearson gives us the all clear?” Woolsey asks.

“Listen, our orders are to take you to the research station. We’re going to the research station.” Ali responds, annoyed by the man’s incessant questioning and complaining. 

“Teal’c?” Daniel says. Cameron and Ali turn to see that Daniel, Teal’c, and the second airman have stopped walking. Mitchell signals the group to stop as well. 

Ali readies her weapon as she hears humming and scuttling underneath her. “It’s the bugs.” she says quietly. 

Suddenly, the bugs come up from the ground and attack the airman as the group watches helplessly. 

“Move! Now!” Ali yells. She ushers Daniel and Teal’c along in front of her and follows behind them. The group runs into the forest and Mitchell stops, followed by everyone else. Ali grabs Daniel’s shoulder and he looks at his sister, giving her a nod to say he’s alright. 

Carter figures out that the bugs are using their echolocation to hunt their prey, their prey being the group. 

Ali moves up with the other two Colonels and they discuss where to go as the delegates catch their breath.

“We need to get to rocky terrain, it’ll be more difficult for them to move.” Ali suggests to her teammates. 

Carter and Mitchell nod and Walker chimes in, “We could try the caves, this way.” he then leads the group off towards the caves. 

When they arrive, SG-1 allows the delegates to enter the cave and then they stand across the cave entrance with their weapons ready. The same sound as before, the squeaking and rumbling from beneath their feet meets their ears. 

“They’re coming.” Mitchell announces. 

Then, Carter has an idea and speaks up. “They're highly sensitive to sound, the concussive force of our weapons should be enough to drive them back.” 

“Where do we shoot?” Ali asks her friend who responds to fire at the ground. 

The five team members then aim their guns at the soft ground and fire. The spray of bullets kicks up dust from the soil and the air is filled with the harsh sound of gunfire. When they stop firing, the noise from the insects has died down. They are safe for the time being. 

“Very nice.” Cam says, looking at Ali who smiles in return. 

Cam goes inside the cave to Airman Walker and the delegates. The other four remain at the entrance, Ali looking around warily as if the bugs will come back at any second. 

Mitchell speaks to the IOA representatives inside, “All right folks, listen up. We're surrounded by rock here so there's no way the bugs are digging in. We've got the entrance covered. Everything's going to be fine.” 

Mitchell rejoins the team. “Until we run out of bullets.” Daniel remarks, adding to Cameron’s speech to the terrified delegates. 

~~

Walker, who is guarding the entrance to the cave, stands up and goes to attention when he sees Colonel Jackson approaching. 

“At ease. How ya doing out here?” the colonel inquires with a small smile at his nervous demeanor. 

“Good, Colonel. All good.” the airman replies shakily.

She responds with a smile, glancing at the Airman and then turning to look out the entrance of the cave for any activity.

Ali is just about to ask the airman something else when Cameron walks out of the cave and joins them. The young airman goes to attention again and Ali lets out a small laugh as Cameron waves him off. 

Cam steps outside of the cave and activates his radio, “Colonel Pearson, come in.” he pauses, allowing for any response and then repeats himself. “Gamma site, do you read?” he tries a third time but to no avail. 

He switches off his radio and curses. Ali sighs, reaching out and placing a hand on his arm. He looks at her but neither says anything. 

Walker breaks the silence, “They’d have answered by now.” 

“Yeah, I know.” Cam replies, looking away from Ali and stepping back inside the cave entrance. “You okay?” he directs his question at the Airman. 

Walker nods, “Yes Sir, I'm fine. I'm just a little bit rattled, is all.”

Mitchell pats him on the arm and motions with his head for Ali to come back inside with him. 

As the two colonels walk away, they fail to notice the outline of one of the bugs crawling underneath the young Airman’s skin… 

~~  
The next morning, three of the five members of SG-1 stand together within the cave, discussing what their next move shall be as the delegates sit nearby listening. 

“We have heard nothing from the Gamma site since we left. I fear we must assume the worst and plan accordingly.” Teal’c observes.

“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.” Mitchell answers as he eats a breakfast bar. 

“We cannot stay here indefinitely. Eventually, this position will be overrun.” Teal’c adds. Mitchell agrees that they need to move as far away as possible. 

“Well, given the rate these bugs are multiplying, it's doubtful that we could outpace them on foot.” Carter responds. 

“We must return for the F-302’s” Teal’c says. Mitchell and Carter nodding in agreement. 

The three are then met with the sound of running footsteps entering the cave, looking up to see the Jackson siblings with scared expressions. 

“He’s gone! Walker. Daniel and I went to check on him. He’s not there.” Ali says, fearing for the life of the young soldier. 

“Perhaps he's just stepped out to relieve himself.” Chapman, one of the delegates, interjects. The team give him incredulous looks and Ali scoffs.

Cam leads Ali, Teal’c, and Daniel from the cave in search of Walker, yelling “We’ll be back” as he runs out. 

~~

The four teammates walk quietly and carefully through the forest of the Gamma site, looking for any sign of Walker as Cameron attempts to contact him via the radio. 

Cam holds up a fist to stop the three behind him and then indicates that they should split up. Each picks a direction and heads off, ducking low branches, stepping over rocks and shrubs that litter the forest floor. 

Daniel pushes a branch out of the way and stops, then activates his radio and informs the team that he has found something.

“Coming to you.” Cameron answers and the three converge on Daniel’s location. Ali gasps upon seeing the body of the Airman sprawled across the ground, unmoving and lifeless. 

“We’re too late.” Daniel says, wincing at the sight. 

Suddenly, Walker’s leg twitches and Ali steps forward, kneeling beside the boy. “Hey, Walker, take it easy.” she says as she lays a hand on the boy’s chest. His head turns as if he is waking up, but it is soon clear that these movements are not being made by the soldier as his entire body begins to ripple. 

Cameron grabs a shocked Allison by her shoulder and swiftly pulls her back next to him and Daniel.   
Then the bugs burst from the young man’s chest and swarm across the ground. As Daniel, Teal’c, and Ali prepare to fire at them, Cameron stops them. Ali gives the man beside her a questioning look but watches warily as the bugs burrow beneath their feet.

“Jackson,” Cameron says, and both siblings turn at their name but Cameron looks at Daniel, “why don’t you go back to the cave, tell Carter that the three of us are going back for the 302’s?” 

“Where are you planning on landing them?” the doctor inquires. 

“We’ll do an aerial surveillance and find some place, then we'll come back and get everyone and ferry them to a safe location.” 

“Okay, where would that be?” 

“Far, far, far away from here.” Ali answers her older brother. 

“Right, okay. Well, good luck.” He says to his two friends before placing a hand on his sister’s shoulder and whispering to her, “Be safe.” 

She nods, “You too.” 

Daniel then backs away from Ali, Mitchell, and Teal'c, planting his feet carefully on the ground while the others make their way to the Gamma site.   
~~

As the three walk to Gamma, Cameron makes conversation, never one to do well with long silences. 

“Let me ask you a question. All those years you were fighting the Goa'uld, did you ever just step back and say 'sooner or later our luck's going to run out and we're gonna get our asses kicked’?” Cameron says to the tall alien beside him. 

To which Teal’c responds, “Never.” 

Ali, who is leading her two friends back to Gamma, softly stepping on the ground as to not attract the bugs, smiles at the bluntness of the alien. 

“Never, not once. Even though you were vastly outnumbered fighting an opponent with superior technology and firepower.” Cameron responds.

“They may have had the superior forces and resources but we possessed something far greater.” Cameron inquires about what that is and Teal’c continues, “A just cause. I had no doubt the Goa'uld would be defeated. Perhaps not in my lifetime but I knew eventually they would fall and I have no doubt the same fate awaits the Ori.”

“You see that's what I like about you, you're always positive. Hell, you've probably already passed this bug situation and are thinking about what movie you want to watch tomorrow night.” 

“I was considering ‘Old School’” Teal’c answers with a slight smile. 

Suddenly the three members of SG-1 stop walking as an explosion rumbles through the forest. 

The explosion is felt in the cave where Sam and Daniel are watching over the delegates and they contact their teammates with the radio. 

“Teal’c, Cameron, Ali, what’s your status?” Carter’s voice carries through the radio to the other three members of the team and Ali picks up on the fear in the blonde woman’s tone. 

“We’re okay Sam,” Ali responds as she follows Teal’c and Cameron up to the edge of a cliff, looking out over the Gamma base. “But the base isn’t…” she continues as her eyes fall upon the smoking remains of the base. 

“What happened?” Daniel asks. 

“Looks like the base self-destruct triggered..” Cam answers. “Gamma site’s gone.” 

~~

As the three make their way back to the cave, Ali continues walking in silence as the two men behind her talk about apartment hunting for Teal’c. Cameron is convinced that Teal’c needs his own apartment, no matter how many times Teal’c refuses. 

Then, a rumbling sounds beneath them and Ali, who is leading the group, holds up a fist to halt the other two. 

The chattering of the bugs grows louder and the ground beneath their feet begins to shake. Mitchell aims his weapon at the ground. 

But as soon as the rumbling came, it is gone, the insects have passed by. The three remain still for a few more moments, ensuring that the bugs are in fact gone. 

Cameron then slowly lifts his foot and tentatively places it on the ground. The rumbling returns as the radio activates and Daniel’s voice sounds through it, asking where they are. 

Mitchell activates the radio and whispers, “Requesting radio silence.” 

Another wave of chirping and rumbling insects passes. Another moment passes and then Cameron takes another step. When there is no sign of insects, he whispers, “I think we’re good to go.” 

Before he can continue walking, Teal’c grabs him by the arm, “Perhaps we should keep any unnecessary conversation to a minimum.” he says. 

Mitchell nods and replies with an ‘okay.’ And then he moves in front of Allison to take the lead and the team is moving lightly through the forest again. 

~~

Upon returning to the cave, the three find Daniel sitting outside the cave waiting for them. Ali smiles at the sight of her brother and he greets them all warmly, giving his sister a short hug and then leading her into the cave. 

“Hi. Scrath plan B.” Mitchell says as he enters the main area of the cave.

When one of the delegates asks what they will do now with the gate being buried and Cameron explains that the SGC will send the Odyssey and all they have to do is wait. 

When Cameron says that everything will be fine, and sits down on a rock beside Ali, Sam is the only one to respond. “Theoretically.” she says, meaning that only theoretically everything will be fine. 

Everyone in the cave turns to face her and Mitchell responds, “Theoretically?” 

“Theoretically, yes, the Odyssey could come and beam us off the planet's surface.”

“But?” Mr. Woolsey says. 

“Look, I'm sorry but there's no point sugar-coating this. If Stargate Command is operating on the assumption that the base has been lost, they'll enact protocol CR-91.” 

Ali’s eyes widen in realization and Shen asks what protocol CR-91 is. 

“Once in orbit the Odyssey will launch a payload, probably a neurotoxin that will wipe out R-75. That will allow Stargate Command to mount a salvage operation of the Gamma site.” Sam answers.

“But they’ll beam us out of here first.” Daniel says but Allison shakes her head.

“Our transmitters won't work because of the interference in the atmosphere.” Ali answers and then Daniel asks about their life signs and she shakes her head again, “They won’t be able to pick up our individual life signs, there will be too many. We’re surrounded by the bugs, lost in a sea of life signs.” the colonel explains, looking down at her hands. Carter nods, indicating that what Ali has said is correct. 

This information starts a riot with the delegates who, now knowing that they will probably be killed by poison gas dropped by their ‘rescuers’ on a planet thousands of light years from their home, are even more scared than they were before.

Mitchell asks Carter when she thinks the Odyssey will arrive.

“I have no way of knowing exactly when it was sent but given the approximate time that Stargate Command lost contact with the Gamma site and allowing for the production of the toxin, I'd say inside of a few hours.” she answers. 

“We must find a way to get in contact with the Odyssey to let the crew know that we are in fact alive.” Teal’c says. 

“Except that our only way of communicating with them went up with the Gamma site.” Ali says, running a hand through her hair exasperatedly. 

“Maybe not.” Daniel says, stepping closer as he enters the conversation again, “The research station. It must have some kind of communication array that lets it transmit data back to the Gamma site.”

“But is it capable of reaching a ship in planetary orbit?” Teal’c inquires. 

“It could, if I had some time to work on it.” Carter answers and Ali stands up, moving closer to the others. 

“Then all we have to do is get to the research station.” Woolsey interjects. 

“Right. And the only thing between us and it is five miles of forest and a whole lotta bugs.” Cam says.

Ali sighs, “Piece of cake.” 

~~

As the group walks to the research station, Ali and Cameron take the back, keeping an eye on the delegates as their teammates lead the way. Cameron helps Shen through some rocks and grabs LaPierre, telling him to keep moving when the French man stops, hunched over and panting. Ali passes Cameron and LaPierre but stops when the man answers, rolling her eyes at him. 

“I cannot.” the delegate says. 

Everyone stops walking and Carter moves back to talk to the man, stopping beside Allison, “We’re almost there.” she says. 

“That is what you said almost half an hour ago.” the man says angrily. 

“The transmission we'll be sending will enable the Odyssey to triangulate our position and pick up our individual life signs but we all have to be within the target area.” Carter responds, clearly getting extremely annoyed with the behavior of the civilians. 

Ali stands quietly at the back of the group watching the events unfold. 

“We’ve been walking for hours.” he says, sitting on a rock. 

“Hey we don’t have time to sit around!” Cam says in a harsh but quiet voice. 

“We are in violent agreement.” the man says. 

“Ya know what? Sit here.” Mitchell says, handing the French delegate his sidearm. “You cover our six, but stay alert. You’ll hear the bugs coming, but tree ferrets give no warning.” Ali stifles her laughter as the man’s expression goes from confusion to fear at the mention of ‘tree ferrets’. He repeats the name, questioning what they are.

“Yeah, nasty buggers. Swoop down and separate a man's head from his torso before he can blink.” Mitchell answers, continuing with his charade. 

Carter fights her smile, looking at the other female Colonel beside her who is doing the same. They share a look but quickly look away before they start laughing. 

Mr. Woolsey, who was standing beside LaPierre, quickly moves to rejoin the group, fear spreading across his features.

“You- you’re lying.” the man stutters in fear.

Mitchell doesn’t respond, he just turns and keeps walking. Ali does the same and he falls into step with her, giving her a side smile. She lightly elbows him in the side and he chuckles softly. 

LaPierre sits for a moment before jumping up and running to catch up with the group. “Wait!” he yells.

He falls into step beside Carter and they continue to walk. 

~~

The group finally catches sight of the research station and Mitchell says, “Let’s pick up the pace.” before jogging down the rocky hill to the building. 

Shen slips as she attempts to slide down the hill and her ankle twists awkwardly beneath her. 

Ali cringes when the woman yells in Mandarin as she rubs her ankle, alerting the bugs to their presence. She hears the rumbling and chirping as Daniel bends over to help the woman up, supporting her as they follow the rest of the group. Cameron ushers Ali ahead of himself and follows after her. 

The group continues to run towards the small building, Woolsey sprinting ahead of the rest. The civilians and Sam burst into the building while Teal’c and Ali stand a few feet from the structure, preparing to fire at the ground and drive the bugs away. 

Cameron helps Daniel and Shen, who were further behind the rest due to her limping, into the building before joining the other two. 

The three begin to fire at the ground and soon after, Daniel joins them. 

The machine gun fire is all that Ali can hear as they attempt to hold off the oncoming insects.

Mitchell steps back and sticks his head in the building to check on Carter. “How’s it going?” he asks.

“I need to significantly boost the power in order to penetrate the radioactivity in the ionosphere.” she replies, still working. 

“All right, boost it already!” he answers as he quickly moves back outside to help his teammates. 

“Yeah, I think I’m good.” Carter says, finishing what she was doing with the flick of a switch and the array whirs as it powers up. 

Outside, as the other four members of SG-1 continue to fire at the ground, the noise of the bugs increases drastically.

“What the hell?” Ali shouts over the gunfire. She looks at Cam who rushes back to the building and sticks his head inside again, looking to Carter for an explanation. 

“The vibrations being generated by the communications array must be attracting the bugs. Think you can hold them off?” she asks. 

“Is this a bad time to tell you we're almost out of ammo?” he replies, then returns to the fight. 

The team is relieved for a moment when the noise of the bugs ceases. They stare at the ground, waiting for the return of the rumbling and chirping. 

“It’s time to improvise.” Cameron says. 

Mitchell pulls out some C4 and the team begins to put charges in the explosives and bury them at various points around the building. 

When they are ready, Ali looks to Cameron who gives her a nod and she activates her radio, “Okay. Go.” she relays to Carter. 

Carter turns the communications array back on and then grabs her weapon and leaves to join the fight, but not before LaPierre questions her about how long they can hold off the bugs. She leaves without responding to the man, not knowing the answer to his question.

Carter joins her teammates. “They are approaching from the right.” Teal’c announces before an explosion sounds from the right, making Carter jump. They fire at the ground on their right. The noise dies down and they stop firing. 

But soon it returns from another side. An explosion. The team fires at the ground. Noise stops. Then returns. The pattern continues until the last of the charges blows. 

They soon run out of ammo and each member of the team switches to their handguns, backing up at the same time. 

The bugs come above ground, the handgun fire, intermittent and not as loud as the machine guns, does nothing to scare them off.

Then, when Allison squeezes the trigger of her handgun, nothing happens. She is out of ammo. She drops the gun to the ground and continues to back up as her teammates also run out of ammo. 

Ali reaches out and grabs Cameron’s hand, looking away from the bugs that will kill her in mere moments to look into his soft blue eyes. 

He looks back and squeezes her hand. 

The bugs are inches from their feet.

But suddenly, just as the bugs are about to reach them, a blue light engulfs the teammates and they are beamed onto the Odyssey.

When they appear on the Odyssey, Ali breaks away from looking at Cameron to look around her. 

“We’re not dead!” she exclaims. Her teammates celebrate, hugging each other, grateful. 

She throws her arms around Cameron who hugs her back just as tightly. 

And she feels even safer in his arms.


End file.
